Border Cops Bust "Too Friendly" Drug Smuggler
Feds: Amiable suspect had meth taped to back, sides
NOVEMBER 14--A California man who was profiled as “too friendly” while attempting to re-enter the country by foot from Mexico was arrested when a border agent searched him and discovered packages of methamphetamine taped to his body, according to 
court records.
Jerry Holwuttle, 58, sought to enter the U.S. Saturday at around 5 AM via a “pedestrian crossing lane.” Asked if he was bringing anything into the country, Holwuttle, who lives outside San Diego, replied, “None.”
But when a Customs and Border Protection officer “noticed Holwuttle was acting ‘too friendly’ and wearing a loose leather jacket,” he was subjected to a search that located a “hard package” on his back.
Agents subsequently discovered four packages taped to Holwuttle’s lower back and sides. The packages, which weighed a combined 2.65 pounds, field tested positive “for the characteristics of methamphetamine.”
Holwuttle was arrested on a felony drug importation charge and booked into San Diego’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he remains in custody in advance of a detention hearing set for tomorrow in U.S. District Court.
Sadly, prosecution filings do not detail how Holwuttle’s alleged excessive friendliness manifested itself. It seems likely that he would also have been searched if agents thought him to be “too hostile.” Perhaps adopting an attitudinal middle ground facilitates the smuggling of narcotics into the country. (2 pages)
