Tulsa Mechanic Finds 41 Pounds Of Pot In Dash Of SUV Bought At Police Auction

Eighteen tightly packaged, perfectly bundled bricks of marijuana were hidden inside a specially built, aluminum-lined compartment inside the dash of a 2007 Chevy Trailblazer.

Friday, January 9th 2015, 5:56 pm

By: News On 6


A man who just wanted the defroster repaired on his truck got the shock of a lifetime when his mechanic found 41 pounds of marijuana hidden inside the truck's dash.

The owner had no idea it was there, especially since he bought the truck from a police auction years ago.

Eighteen tightly packaged, perfectly bundled bricks of marijuana were hidden inside a specially built, aluminum-lined compartment inside the dash of a 2007 Chevy Trailblazer.

To say the mechanic who found them was shocked is an understatement.

"Something you're used to seeing in movies and on TV shows, but [it's] definitely one of the oddest things I've come across in my line of work, for sure," Chris, of Midtown Automobile and Diesel Repair, said.

Chris couldn't find the parts he expected to find, and then he started seeing added parts that shouldn't have been in the dash. And as he kept pulling apart, he found the secret compartment built in to the dash, something that took a crew days to complete.

"The compartment, which is difficult to see, is lined in aluminum tape, it looks like,” Chris said. “Everything lined in aluminum tape should not be there."

They rigged the venting around the compartment so the heat and air still blew through the vents, it just wouldn't go through the defroster.

The stash likely had been in there since 2009.

That's when these two men, Paul Rocha and Luis Solis, were pulled over by Tulsa police for not wearing their seatbelts.

After finding cocaine in the car, police obtained a warrant and found 25 pounds of marijuana in the gas tank.

Both men currently are in prison. After they serve their sentences, they will be deported back to Mexico.

As part of the court case, police confiscated the vehicle and later sold it at auction. That's where the current owner bought it.

He had no idea he was driving around with 41 pounds of marijuana in his dash all that time.

"We joked about it a second, but [we were] very nervous,” Chris said. “That amount of anything is scary to be around."

Sapulpa police will turn the drugs over to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for destruction.

Tulsa police had no way to know the drugs were hidden in the dash since they'd already found 25 pounds in the gas tank.

Now the owner of the car is looking at a much more expensive repair bill than he expected.

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