Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 Source: Press-Enterprise (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Press-Enterprise Company Contact: 3512 Fourteenth Street Riverside, CA 92501 Website: http://www.inlandempireonline.com/ Author: Raymond Smith Note: This is the third item in a series. When the entire series is archived at MAP we will create an index. SEARCHING FOR DRUG SMUGGLERS Highway teams in Riverside and San Bernardino counties scan the inerstates for drug traffickers The cars roll by on the interstate, sometimes hundreds of them bumper-to-bumper. Any one might have methamphetamine stashed in a hidden compartment, stashed in a spare tire or taped inside a gas tank. It's up to California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Mendenhall and his drug-sniffing German shepherd, Dino, to pull the right card from the deck. Mendenhall is one of 16 officers from the CHP and other law-enforcement agencies assigned to highway interdiction teams organized by the highway patrol. They cruise interstates in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, stopping drivers for traffic violations. Then they look for signs of drug-smuggling and other crimes. One night in November, temperatures hover just above the freezing mark as Mendenhall patrols a stretch of Interstate 15 near San Bernardino. Mendenhall stops a man from Kansas who is driving through California after a trip to Arizona. The car was weaving and, with the low temperatures, Mendenhall wonders why the windows are down when the driver is wearing a short-sleeved shirt. The car pulls over. A beam from Mendenhall's small flashlight reveals that the man's pupils do not react to light, a possible sign he is high on methamphetamine. The man explains he is on a natural high from an unexplained near-religious experience several hours earlier. He also tells Mendenhall he is fueled by caffeine from gulping coffee constantly during the trip. Mendenhall is skeptical, but his suspicions ease a bit when the man produces a prescription asthma inhaler. The aerosol spray contains ephedrine, a close chemical cousin to methamphetamine. Clandestine lab operators can convert ephedrine to methamphetamine, and the inhaler's effects might mimic some signs of drug use, Mendenhall says. He sends the man on his way. Officers look for any kind of illegal drugs, not just methamphetamine, as well as illegal guns and other contraband. Shortly after stopping the driver from Kansas, Mendenhall pulls over a speeding Buick. A short conversation convinces the driver to let Mendenhall and Dino search the car. But the woman says her 3-year-old twin daughters will cry without their toys, a Tickle-Me Elmo doll and a Tweetie Bird purse. In the near-freezing blackness, the woman walks with the girls -- and the toys -- to a patrol car and waits inside as Dino's nose hunts for a drug scent in the Buick. Dino paws and scratches at a spot on the car's rear floorboard where the toys had lain just moments before. Officers want the toys, but the woman refuses. She grabs one daughter, sandwiching the Tickle-Me Elmo between the little girl and her own body. Officers wrestle the doll away and remove it from the patrol car. Outside, Dino lunges immediately. Strong jaws lined with sharp teeth latch onto the bug-eyed Elmo's torso in a grip that even Mendenhall has a hard time breaking. A slit in Elmo's back opens to reveal two plastic bags. Tests show the bags contain 11 ounces of brown heroin worth about $70,000, Mendenhall said. Sandra Espinoza, 31, of Ontario was arrested on suspicion of possessing heroin for sales, transporting heroin for sales and child endangerment. She pleaded not guilty in San Bernardino County Superior Court. "She didn't care if I got this one," Mendenhall's partner, Officer Mike Blaine said, pointing to the empty Tweetie-Bird purse. "She grabbed that Elmo." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake