Two suspects were arrested in Texas yesterday after police inspected a suspicious vehicle at a Walmart parking lot and found them allegedly cooking drugs.
Robert Robles Jr., 34, and September Alvarez, 22, were detained after cops responded to the scene at roughly 3 a.m. Tuesday, News 4 San Antonio reported, citing a police report.
Read more: Texas woman gets Walmart ban after drinking wine from Pringles can
It later emerged that Robles Jr. had provided a fake name to deputies. He had been named in a warrant for a probation violation in the state of California. During a search of the couple's car, officers from Converse Police Department said they discovered a stash of illicit materials.
This included five handguns, meth, drug paraphernalia, 50 caliber rounds, shotgun shells and stolen IDs. One of the firearms, reportedly a semi-automatic, had been reported stolen.
According to KTSA, a radio station in San Antonio, Texas, officers initially suspected the pair of cooking meth because of the odor coming from the vehicle. The news outlet reported a hidden compartment in the car's dashboard appeared to be used to cook the drug.
"They had either just began to prepare the methamphetamine for injection or had just done just that," Converse PD Lt. Jeff Shook commented, KSAT-TV (ABC) reported in an on-air news segment. Images obtained by the station showed the covert area covered with tin foil.
"There was a half of a soda can in there," Shook explained. "It appeared as if they were actually cooking their methamphetamine in that compartment." In brief statements after their arrest, while being transported by the cops, the pair appeared to deny charges against them.
"We were parked at Walmart just chilling, talking," Alvarez told KSAT-TV. Robles Jr. added: "There was no sign that said no parking." The suspects were charged with "possession of a controlled substance, theft of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, unlawfully carrying a weapon and unlawful possession of identifying information," KTSA reported.
Robles Jr. was individually facing a separate charge of being a fugitive and failing to identify himself to the police officers.
Earlier this year in Texas, a woman was banned from a Walmart store after she allegedly spent hours drinking wine from a Pringles can while riding about in an electric shopping cart. Cops were called about 9 a.m. Witnesses said the woman had been at the location since 6:30 a.m.
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