Chock full o' meth

$250,000 to $300,000 estimated street value worth of methamphetamine hidden into one car zipping north into Idaho on U.S. 93. Nearly eight pounds of the stuff, translating into a whole lot of hair-trigger wide-awake tweakers roaming the Magic Valley. Interdicting it means that my old clients and the rest of their neighbors might sleep a little more soundly this week.

It was bad timing for the drug lobbyists and the Sudafed-on-demand interests up at the legislature in Boise, though. The House Judiciary and Rules Committee passed a bill Thursday to restrict sales of over-the-counter cold and allergy products containing pseudoephedrine.

If the bill eventually becomes a law, you'll have to ask a pharmacist for permission to buy those products. You'll have to show your ID and sign for the medicine. You'll also be restricted to buying no more than nine grams of pseudoephedrine within a 30-day period.

In the great scheme, this doesn't seem so unduly burdensome. Back to the hero of our tale now, who was found "gripping the wheel tightly and looked as if he was frozen in place."

A couple of things I've never understood about narco-trafficantes: if you are going to transport your contraband on the highways, I can see hiring a drug mule with a prior drug trafficking conviction - he probably beat out the applicants with no prior experience. Why, though, to transport your precious cargo would you hire a driver with seven drivers' license suspensions ? And if you are that drug mule, and you know you're carrying over a quarter-million dollars' worth of something naughty, why do you drive nine miles over the speed limit?

And then "(a) drug dog was called to the scene and 'showed interest' in several areas of the car." Well, of course he did! Have a nice 20 years in the pen, pendejo!

Bonus link: News Flash! "Police applaud Supreme Court decision on K-9s"

(Links to the Twin Falls newspaper will expire in seven days or less)