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Isle-bound man leaves slippers and meth in San Jose airport


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POSTED: Sunday, January 24, 2010

Stopped during a routine airport security screening before boarding a flight to Hawaii, a 22-year-old man left his slippers behind and bolted from the Mineta San Jose International Airport on Friday.

Police later found that Preston Vaoliilii, of Sacramento, allegedly had 5 pounds of crystal methamphetamine taped to his body.

Vaoliilii, who was traveling without baggage, had passed through the first stage of security when Transportation Security Administration agents asked him to step into an isolation booth for a secondary screening, police said.

“;As an agent entered from the other side, he (Vaoliilii) ran out the way he came in,”; said San Jose Police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez.

Vaoliilii was traveling in socks and slippers and fled from security officials about 7:27 a.m., running out into the rain in his socks “;toward a new parking garage we're building,”; Lopez said.

He got a ride from someone in a truck who dropped him off a couple of miles from the airport in an area with an Avis Rental Car facility.

Police found him there about an hour later behind a soft drink machine.

When the driver returned to the airport, he noticed the large number of police and informed officers of the man's whereabouts, police said.

The chase did not affect any flights.

Police reviewed airport security videos and noticed that Vaoliilii had allegedly hidden an object in the airport terminal. Police said they recovered 5 pounds of crystal methamphetamine.

Lopez said Vaoliilii had taped crystal methamphetamine to his body down his pants. He allegedly told investigators he planned to fly to Hawaii and sell the drugs for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Instead, he faces arraignment early this week in San Jose for possession of narcotics for sale, trespassing and resisting arrest.