Chicago Man Arrested In Taxi Cab With Mobile Meth Lab in His Pocket

A Chicago Illinois man who passed out in a taxi Christmas afternoon was busted after nearly a half a million dollars in illegal drugs and what appeared to be a mobile meth lab were found in his bag, police said.

The cabbie told police he picked up alleged drug dealer Joseph Hoffman, 25, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, and that Hoffman was chatting on a cell phone during the trip to a house in Rogers Park.

But by the time the arrived at the destination, Hoffman was passed out cold, the cabbie told police.

After spending 10 minutes trying to awaken him, the spooked driver called the cops.
While searching the zonked pusher's bookbag, police found a "clear, crystalline substance" connected by wires to a "power source" – an apparent one-man mobile methamphetamine lab.Police immediately called city firefighters to secure the area and make sure the highly flammable materials were removed safely. Hoffman was taken to a local hospital.

The drugs were worth about $450,000, police said.
Cops also found bags of marijuana, a gallon jug filled with the "date-rape drug" GHP and $1,400 in cash at the house where Hoffman was staying. Hoffman, who is from Vancouver, Wash., was charged with six felonies and held on $100,000 bail.

The cabbie, meanwhile, was kept in the dark about what police found – and stiffed on his fare.