Crime & Safety
Pot Thrown From Window in High-Speed Chase
A suspect was arrested when he and an accomplice allegedly fled from U.S. Border Patrol agents with marijuana and a handgun.
Ten pounds of marijuana were thrown from a vehicle during a high-speed chase that ended in an arrest in Temecula.
Ryan Maddox, 28, was arrested on suspicion of concealing a loaded weapon, possessing and transporting marijuana for sale, being a fugitive from justice and driving without a valid license, according to jail records.
The chase started at the Temecula Border Patrol checkpoint around 9:30 p.m. on July 27 when an agent pulled over a tan Chevrolet Suburban, according to Agent Kim Robinson.
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A man named Timothy Bbawi was driving, and Maddox was in the passenger seat, Robinson wrote in an affidavit supporting a search warrant.
As an agent looked in the back of the vehicle, he noticed a cardboard box in the cargo area. The driver refused to make eye contact as he was questioned about the contents, according to the search warrant.
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The agent instructed the driver to go to secondary inspection for further investigation. The driver started towards secondary inspection and then hit the gas and sped away, according to Robinson.
Agents jumped into patrol cars and chased the suspects north on I-15.
The driver eventually stopped the vehicle on the freeway near the Temecula Parkway ramp, where agents took the suspects into custody.
Rivera looked inside the Suburban and noticed the cardboard box was missing.
Two other agents went back to the shoulder of the freeway where the vehicle pulled away. They found the cardboard box and inside discovered 10 pounds of marijuana, according to the affidavit.
They then searched the vehicle and found a loaded revolver, 24 rounds of live ammunition and $2,000 in cash, Robinson wrote.
After a sherriff deputy read Maddox his Miranda rights, the suspect told the deputy in detail how the driver fled from the checkpoint and threw the box out of the vehicle.
Maddox said he had no idea the box, gun or the ammunition were in the vehicle.
After the arrest, several items, including cell phones, GPS devices and an i-Pod, were inventoried for further investigation.
These items will be put through a forensic investigation to determine what was being communicated between the driver and the passenger leading up to the chase, according to Robinson.
