Suspected drug runners toss bales of pot as police chase them down I-8

It was a chaotic scene on Interstate 8 near Casa Grande Wednesday morning as police chased a white truck from which, authorities said, two occupants started tossing bales of marijuana.

Much of that evidence was lost, however, as motorists who followed behind the chase stopped to pick up the drugs.

Jim Knupp, a Pinal County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said a deputy was monitoring traffic along the highway near Trekell Road when he spotted a 2006 White Trailblazer traveling at high rate of speed.

"When the deputy caught up with the vehicle, he attempted to perform a traffic stop," he said in a news release. "The vehicle began to accelerate to speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour and the occupants began to throw bales of marijuana out of the vehicle onto the roadway."

Units from MCSO soon joined the pursuit, and deputies finally stopped the vehicle after laying down spike strips in the vehicle's path, which deflated its tires.

The Trailblazer stopped near Val Vista Road, the sheriff's office said. The occupants, who authorities identified as 43-year-old Mario Perez-Paz and 21-year-old Juan Aguilar-Zavala, ran from the vehicle, but officers were able to catch up to them and arrest them.

"During their interviews, the men indicated they were offered $1,000 by a female in Phoenix to drive the Trailblazer to I-8 to pick up unknown packages," Knupp said.

The investigation also led to the discovery of a stash house in Mesa where authorities said they also found 20 illegal immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico, police said.

Knupp said deputies and Arizona Department of Public Safety officers were not able to retrieve the drugs that were thrown from the vehicle "due to traffic conditions." He said it was taken by people in four or five other vehicles that were not involved in the chase or transportation of the drugs.

Perez-Paz and Aguilar-Zavala were booked into the Pinal County Sheriff's Jail on a number of charges ranging from conspiring to transport drugs for sale to unlawful flight from law enforcement.

About 375 pounds of marijuana were collected during the investigation, the sheriff's office said.