More Meth-Heads Caught Cruising Without a License

Driving without a license while in the possession of drugs seems to be becoming quite the San Angelo trend these days. Doing that driving with meth and an open container is something like expert mode. Unfortunately, expert mode rarely plays out well, and the San Angelo Police Department has a pretty good track record of catching criminals who routinely make simple traffic mistakes.

The most recent incident occurred Oct. 10 around 10:30 p.m. on Officer Fisher’s patrol route. Fisher observed an illegally parked Chrysler Concorde pull away from a curb in the 200 block of Hassell Street and make a U-turn, thus arousing the officer’s attention.

Contrary to common practice, 32-year-old driver Angel Laraz stopped his vehicle following a flash of the lights, and got out to greet Officer Fisher at his unit parked behind the Concorde. Fisher directed Laraz to stand in front of his patrol unit, and as they went through identification process, Laraz slyly threw a used glass pipe on the ground.

Unfortunately for Laraz, it wasn’t sly enough. Fisher noticed him discard the pipe, and put him into handcuffs until Officer McGee arrived to assist Fisher and he was able to retrieve the discarded object.

The pipe revealed burnt residue on one end and a whitish substance on the other. As a result, the officer conducted a Probable Cause Search during which he found a small plastic baggie of what field-tested to be meth.

Larez, who was determined to have two outstanding city warrants as well, was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Narcotic Paraphernalia, Driving While License Invalid and for the two outstanding warrants.

As it were, Laraz had brought a friend along for the ride as well, 28-year-old Manuel Ramos, who also carried a little glass pipe with suspicious white and burnt residue at the ends, and was in possession of an open container. Ramos received citations for both the Open Container and the Narcotic Paraphernalia.

Further investigation will be executed by Detective Medley.