COALINGA, Calif. (CBS/KGPE) - This case is part of a new trend in transporting methamphetamine. It's in liquid form not the powder we're used to seeing. The suspects used old tequila bottles to move it to its destination.
To the untrained eye, they look like bottles of tequila. But it's more than half a million dollars worth of methamphetamine.
Drug smugglers are trying different tactics. Matt Radke with California Highway Patrol says, "It's an attempt to get by our officers and our officers are highly trained and indications were there."
The suspects told the officer they'd picked up the bottles in southern California and were on their way to Oregon. Radke says, "Based on the interviews with the driver and the passenger there's criminal activity with both, their nervousness."
The officers k-9 partner is a drug sniffing dog and indicated there were drugs in the car. The bottles of meth were in the truck.
The meth has to be handled carefully. The fumes and liquid could make someone sick.
Investigators from the Department of Justice and the Fresno Meth Task Force fingerprinted the bottles and took samples from each one.
Two people are under arrest. They are identified as 20-year-old Rene Paul Diaz and 38-year-old Veronica Carrasco, both from Oregon.
The two suspects will face federal drug charges.