BAKERSFIELD — A 45-year-old Lamont man on probation was arrested last week for after being caught with around $22,000 in suspected methamphetamine.
Alex Veloz was booked into the Kern County Jail on charges of transportation and possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person and possession of a dangerous weapon.
His bail has been set at $67,500.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office stated, that Veloz’s arrest occurred in the evening of June 4, when deputies assigned to the California Multi-Jurisdictional Methamphetamine Enforcement Team conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle Veloz was traveling in, in the area of Edison Highway and Fairfax Road in east Bakersfield.
After a search of the vehicle, deputies said they found approximately a half a pound of suspected methamphetamine, ammunition, a weapon and an undisclosed amount of cash.
Veloz has a long record of arrests, including a charge in August of last year for driving with a suspended license, reckless evasion, and resisting arrest. Prior to that, over the past 10 years, he has been arrested at least ten times on various charges of burglary, drug possession, resisting arrest, and parole or probation violations. But his history goes back even further.
In 2003, while already a parolee with a history of battery, drug and paraphernalia possession, and resisting arrest, Veloz was in a car when he spotted a sheriff’s deputy approaching. He bolted from the car, and the deputy, calling in for backup, gave chase. Another patrol car tried to block his path, and Veloz ran right over the vehicle. After two of the deputies caught up with him, he only surrendered after being struck with a baton. However, according to a report published in Bakersfield.com, when another deputy in the chase, Benjamin Conway, joined in the group, he struck Veloz several more times, despite his being completely under control by then.
Conway, then 43 and a 16-year-veteran of the force, was subsequently arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon under color of authority. He was later sentenced to nine months in jail, served in neighboring Tulare County.
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