Two arrested after wrong-way chase

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Officials say a car driving the wrong way on I-25 Wednesday morning was being chased by law enforcement and the suspects were trying to eat some key evidence.

Sheriff's deputies responded to calls of two people in a wrecked car but when the deputies got there the couple inside woke up and took off.

Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies arrested the driver Irene Enriquez, 28, near Broadway and I-25, five miles from where the chase began in southwest Albuquerque.

The sheriffs department starting getting calls around 6:45 Wednesday morning.

Deputies say Enriquez and the passenger immediately merged onto I-25 driving north in the southbound lanes and they couldn't stop her as she ran vehicles off the road.

The deputies stopped traffic and set up spike strips near I-25 and Broadway.

After they crashed into a ditch the two were arrested.

Enriquez is charged with DUI and aggravated assault on an officer.

The passenger, 28-year-old Joshua Benavidez, was booked for tampering with evidence.

Investigators are not sure why the couple took deputies on the chase, but they think it could have to do with the drugs they say the two were trying to get rid of.

“It appeared that the passenger was trying to get rid of evidence, and that's why the tampering with evidence, by eating marijuana and throwing some out of the window,” Sgt. Sam White said.

Both Enriquez and Benavidez have criminal histories.

Benavidez had seven warrants out for his arrest.

Sheriff's deputies say no one was injured.