A Chicago man who passed out in a cab on Christmas afternoon was busted with nearly a half a million dollars in drugs and what appeared to be a mobile meth lab in his bag, police said.
The cabbie, who was not named, said he picked up alleged dealer Joseph Hoffman, 25, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and that Hoffman was chatting on a cell phone during the trip to a house in Rogers Park, the Chicago Tribune reported.
But by the time the arrived at the destination, Hoffman was passed out cold, the cabbie told police.
After spending 10 minutes trying to awaken him, the spooked driver called the cops.
When cops searched the zonked pusher's bookbag, they found a "clear, crystalline substance" connected by wires to a "power source" – an apparent one-man mobile methamphetamine lab, according to the Tribune.
Police immediately called city firefighters to secure the area and make sure the highly flammable materials were removed safely. Hoffman was taken to a local hospital.
The drugs were worth about $450,000, police said.
Cops also found bags of marijuana, a gallon jug filled with the "date-rape drug" GHP and $1,400 in cash at the house where Hoffman was staying, the Tribune reported.
Hoffman, who is from Vancouver, Wash., was charged with six felonies and held on $100,000 bail.
The cabbie, meanwhile, was kept in the dark about what police found – and stiffed on his fare.
"They said they found a lot of bad stuff. My only concern was to collect my fare," the cabbie told the Tribune. "It was going on and on, and I didn't even get my full fare."
No comments:
Post a Comment