Driver arrested near Las Vegas after 9.6 pounds of heroin found in car

A Mexican citizen has been charged with intent to distribute 9 1/2 pounds of heroin after a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper arrested him during a traffic stop, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

Mario Alberto Bojorquez-Manrique, 27, was arrested June 10, the Nevada district of the U.S. attorney’s office said in a release on Wednesday. Bojorquez-Manrique also has been accused of entering the U.S. illegally.

A trooper pulled Bojorquez-Manrique over for driving in an “unsafe manner” on U.S. Highway 93 near mile marker 54, approaching Apex northeast of Las Vegas, the attorney’s office said. Bojorquez-Manrique allowed his car to be searched and a narcotics dog “alerted” to the dash area of the car.

A socket driver was found on the passenger-side floorboard, and the trooper noticed fingerprints and tool marks on bolts that secured the wiper cover to the car. Police then found six foil-wrapped packages of heroin that weighed 9.6 pounds, the attorney’s office said.

Police also found a notebook in the car with entries for over a dozen drug runs, as well as dollar amounts from transactions, the attorney’s office said.

Bojorquez-Manrique faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years,if he is convicted, the release said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.