Daniel Andrés Gómez, a player for Club Tijuana’s third-division reserves squad, was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border last week for attempting to smuggle a shipment of methamphetamines into San Diego. The 21-year-old defender was detained at the San Ysidro checkpoint after a K-9 unit inspected his car, finding the drugs inside the tire of the vehicle, as well as inside the panels. Gómez was reportedly smuggling in 48 pounds of crystal meth into the United States when he was apprehended.

The story gets stranger, however: Gómez was actually reported missing prior to his arrest, as his family sent out a message on social media asking for help in finding him.

https://twitter.com/Jazzlv_/status/850038369832796161

Apparently, Gómez had been missing since hopping into an Uber early Wednesday morning, a fact that was discovered when he didn’t show up to a Club Tijuana practice at 8 A.M. that day. The family reported him missing on Thursday, although the U.S. Department of Justice’s charges against Gómez state that he was already in police custody by then.

He is now facing drug trafficking charges, and awaits trial in a San Diego jail, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday, April 18. For his part, Gómez, who holds both U.S. and Mexican citizenship, states that he was going to a Denny’s in National City to eat breakfast, before heading back to Mexico for training. He’s also denying that he knew anything about the drugs in his car.

The club has not issued a statement on the arrest as of Tuesday morning. Gómez had only participated in 5 games for the Xolos’ reserves, totaling 335 minutes, and seeing one red card in that time.