Police say a 51-year-old Modesto man threw drugs out the window as he fled in a pursuit for three miles on Tuesday evening, Feb. 5.

At 11:20 p.m. Officer Matthew Berlier attempted to stop a car near S. Ninth Street and Latimer Avenue after the officer noticed the vehicle was missing its front license plate. The driver, Cruz Ramirez, 51, of Modesto, ignored the lights and siren and sped off, starting a three-mile pursuit that made its way onto southbound Highway 99 and ended at the Mitchell Road off-ramp. During the pursuit the officer saw a white substance, believed to be narcotics, being discarded out of the window. 

Cruz took the Mitchell Road off-ramp at a high rate of speed and lost control on the curve leading underneath the freeway. Ramirez’s vehicle ran into the stop sign, jumped the curb and came to rest on the north side of the Mitchell on-ramp. Cruz was removed from the vehicle and arrested. Two passengers were briefly detained.

Officers went back to the area where the suspected narcotics had been discarded but were unable to locate anything. Cruz was later booked into the county jail where he faces charges of evading an officer and resisting arrest.