California Highway Patrol officers investigating an injury collision on Interstate 5 last month found themselves in the middle of a narcotics investigation involving a suspect on federal probation, according to court documents obtained by The Signal.
The incident began around 7:42 p.m. May 27 in the southbound lanes of Interstate 5, north of Hasley Canyon Road in Castaic, according to an account by a CHP officer of the crash investigation.
CHP officers responded to a report of a two-vehicle crash with injuries and learned that one of the parties, 28-year-old Dylan Gujral, reportedly acted strangely and asked the other party not to call law enforcement before leaving the scene, according to the records.
One person ultimately was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital for the treatment of injuries in the crash involving a 2023 Ford Transit van with Arizona license plates that officers reported was driven by Gujral.
Witnesses reported Gujral allegedly was acting erratically and then fled the scene of an injury crash, so the officer went looking for Gujral’s van, which sustained moderate to major front-end damage in the crash.
Gujral did not make it far from the crash site, according to the court records.
Officers reported finding a man matching Gujral’s description alone at a table outside the Wing Stop on Hasley Canyon Road, sitting near a vehicle matching the description of the van from the crash.
Officers questioned Gujral, who displayed signs of being intoxicated and admitted to being involved in the collision, according to the officer’s report.
Gujral was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI involving drug intoxication, and his vehicle was subsequently searched prior to it being impounded to a local tow yard.
“During the inventory, a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine was located, as well as individual packaged baggies (frequently used for sales) of suspected meth, suspected MDMA (ecstasy) and large amounts of what appeared to be vaping cartridges, both on (Gujral) and (within his van),” according to the report.
After doing some internet research, officers were able to identify the vaping cartridges as matching ones manufactured by a brand called “Divine Truth,” and they’re believed to contain Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a hallucinogenic that’s considered a Schedule-III narcotic, according to the court records.
Schedule-III drugs have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,” according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other examples include ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.
Officers reported finding more than 270 of the cartridges in the van, and later learned that Gujral was on federal probation, but refused to tell his arresting officers the nature of his previous conviction, according to the court records.
The CHP officer called Gujral’s federal probation officer and later learned Gujral’s previous conviction was for narcotics trafficking, according to the investigator’s report.
A request to the Department of Justice Monday for information about the status of any potential charges regarding the investigation into Gujral’s van was referred to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Tlaloc Olvera of the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed Tuesday that Gujral was released to the custody of federal agents, but said federal policy states he could only comment on a person’s custody status.
Olvera referred any questions about pending charges to the agency investigating Gujral. Olvera also said federal policy prohibited him from indicating which agency was investigating Gujral.
There was no indication of charges pending against Gujral in the L.A. County Superior Court system as of Tuesday.
