11 pounds of fentanyl found in car battery, APD says

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin police found more than 11 pounds of fentanyl in a car battery during a traffic stop last week, according to the arrest affidavit.

A violation of not using a turn signal turned into a huge fentanyl bust.

APD said they pulled over a white Chevy SUV on the service road of East Highway 290 on July 8 after it changed lanes without a turn signal.

An officer said the driver took a while to stop after he turned his lights on, and once he was out of the car, the driver struggled to tell the officer his name. The driver was later identified as Uriel Ugarte and the passenger was Luis Miguel Garduno.

A K9 officer responded to the rear of the car and when an officer opened the battery, he found it wasn’t heavy, inside was black wrapper material, according to the affidavit.

After scanning the battery with an x-ray, officers said they found five large bundles of a white substance. It tested positive for fentanyl and was, "the equivalent to over 5 million dosage units."

Both Garduno and Ugarte are facing charges of first degree felony delivery of a controlled substance. Garduno is set to be in court on Aug. 1 and Ugarte is set to be in court on Aug. 15.

The CDC said fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine and a major contributor to overdoses in the United States. 

The CDC said more than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.