Authorities: Suspects Throw Drugs during I-20 Pursuit

LONGVIEW — Two men were arrested Tuesday night on Interstate 20 near Longview after troopers said they threw bricks of marijuana and prescription pills out of their moving vehicle while fleeing authorities. According to KETK and the Longview News-Journal, Sirwelton Hobbs, 28, of Alexandria, La., and Kevin Anthony Gills, 30, of Orland Park, Ill., remained jailed on drug and tampering with evidence charges.

According to Department Public Safety officials, Hobbs was driving about 120 mph when troopers attempted to perform a traffic stop and he fled. “While evading arrest, the driver and passenger discarded a large quantity of Xanax pills by throwing them out of the windows of the vehicle,” trooper Jacob Muehlstein said in an arrest report. “After discarding the pills, the occupants began throwing bricks of marijuana out of the window also.”

Muehlstein said while the two were discarding marijuana from the moving vehicle, one of the bricks hit his patrol car and a nearby tractor trailer. Authorities said Hobbs pulled over near Eastman Road after a 12-mile pursuit. Muehlstein said the suspects were arrested after refusing to answer investigators’ questions.