SAN DIEGO — A man was arrested during a North County traffic stop on Friday after authorities discovered narcotics in the fuel tank of a vehicle, said the San Diego County Sheriff’s office.

At about 7:30 a.m., a detective from the Sheriff’s Border Crime Suppression Team observed a 2012 Chrysler 300 exceeding the posted speed limit. A traffic stop of the speeding vehicle was conducted on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton.

The Sheriff’s office said the vehicle’s driver, identified as Alberto Jose Partida, was found to be a resident of Tijuana, Mexico. Authorities say Partida appeared nervous during the stop and provided deceptive answers to the detective. 

A Sheriff’s canine, conducted a sniff of the vehicle and alerted to the odor of narcotics.  During the search, 32 packages of counterfeit Oxycodone pills were found in the car’s fuel tank, authorities said. Officials estimated that the packages had 240,000 pills in total.

Partida was arrested and booked into the Sheriff’s Vista Detention Facility on suspicion of transporting controlled substances and possession of over 24 kilograms of narcotics.

According to the Sheriff’s office, these types of pills are smuggled into the US from Mexico and are known to contain lethal dosages of fentanyl.