The car involved in a fatal crash on the H-3 freeway on Friday arrived in Hawaii from California earlier this month containing about 32 pounds of methamphetamine, federal authorities said yesterday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials identified the driver of the car who died in the crash as Marvin Edgar Burrow Jr.

Honolulu police said the driver was a 39-year-old California man.

The Honolulu medical examiner said the driver died from multiple traumatic injuries suffered in the crash.

ICE officials said another man, Johnny Resendez Jr., admitted sending the red 2004 Ford Mustang from Oakland on March 1. They said Resendez arrived in Honolulu on Wednesday, picked up the car at Honolulu Harbor on Friday and delivered it to a man at a fast-food restaurant on Nimitz Highway.

Three days before Resendez picked up the car, ICE officials searched the vehicle and found 32 hidden packages of methamphetamine. They replaced the real drugs with fake drugs in packages rigged to send out an electronic signal when opened.

After Resendez delivered the car, ICE officials said, they followed the vehicle to an Ewa Beach residence, where they received an electronic signal from one of the packages. When they approached the residence, officials said, they passed the car headed in the opposite direction.

Other law enforcement officials in a helicopter said they saw the car run a red light from the far left lane, cut through oncoming traffic and speed along surface streets, crossing double-solid lines to pass slower vehicles.

They said the car entered the H-3 freeway and on at least two occasions traveled on the shoulder to bypass traffic.

Honolulu police said witnesses reported seeing the car travel at a high rate of speed. Around 11 a.m., they said, the driver apparently tried to make a U-turn just outside the entrance to the Kaneohe-bound Tetsuo Harano Tunnel when he crashed into a concrete barrier.

A city ambulance took the driver to Castle Medical Center, where he died.

ICE officials said Resendez admitted shipping and delivering another car to Honolulu last summer. They charged him with distributing and conspiring to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine.