Cash and Drugs Seized During I-12 Traffic Stop

An early Tuesday (December 8, 2020) morning traffic stop on Interstate 12 uncovered more than two and a half pounds of Ecstasy tablets and more than six pounds of methamphetamine.

Shortly after midnight Tuesday morning, a member of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Highway Enforcement Unit conducted a routine traffic stop near Mandeville on an eastbound silver Lexus IS3 with a Mississippi license plate after observing the vehicle commit a traffic violation.

Deputies were questioning the driver, Anthony Perkins (age 54) of Carrier, Miss., when he got back in the vehicle and sped off. Deputies pursued the Lexus as it continued at speeds in excess of 130 miles per hour eastbound on I-12. During the pursuit, deputies observed Perkins throw what was later discovered to be illegal narcotics from the vehicle’s window.  The vehicle crashed near the Highway 11 exit in Slidell, and Perkins was taken into custody.

Deputies recovered 2.64 pounds of suspected Ecstasy tablets, 6.10 pounds of suspected methamphetamine, 22 bottles of promethazine HCI and codeine phosphate syrup and $3,091 of suspected drug proceeds from inside the vehicle and along the shoulder of the roadway.

Anthony Perkins was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail on the charges of Resisting an Officer, Aggravated Flight from an Officer, Possession with Intent to Distribute Schedule I CDS (Ecstasy), Possession with Intent to Distribute Schedule II CDS (methamphetamine), Possession with Intent to Distribute Schedule V CDS (promethazine HCI and codeine phosphate), Obstruction of Justice, Transactions Involving Proceeds from Drug Offenses, and Improper Lane Use. Bond was set at $1,600,000.

The Highway Enforcement Unit concentrates on traffic enforcement and intercepting traveling criminals primarily on the interstate systems in St. Tammany Parish.