APPARENT FUGITIVE ELUDES CHP CHASE DRIVER TOSSES BAGS OF POWDER.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY - A fugitive suspect managed to elude pursuit by Highway Patrol officers Sunday night and tossed bags of what appeared to be crystal methamphetamine during his getaway, a CHP spokeswoman said Monday.

A bail bondsman following the man's 2005 Hummer H2 on the Antelope Valley Freeway called the CHP about 6:25 p.m., saying he believed the driver to be an armed fugitive, Officer Wendy Hahn said. Officers caught up with the sport utility vehicle at Sand Canyon Road and followed it at 75 mph.

The man, heading south, pulled over at the Golden Valley Road off-ramp and officers drew their guns in case he was indeed armed, Hahn said.

``The driver stopped, but refused to show his hands or turn off the car, telling officers that there were no keys to the vehicle,'' she said.

She said officers believed the driver to be Raul Eoyoque, 27.

After talking with the officers, the driver accelerated through the intersection at Golden Valley, returning to the southbound freeway. Officers lost sight of the vehicle, but a witness called to report that a vehicle matching the Hummer's description stopped just north of the San Fernando Road off-ramp, where the driver threw three bags containing a white powdery substance onto the shoulder of the road.

Officers recovered two intact one-pound bags of the substance, which appeared to be crystal methamphetamine. A third bag had fallen into traffic lanes and been run over by passing vehicles.

At 7:50 p.m., officers located the Hummer in the park-and-ride lot at San Fernando Road, south of the freeway. A search of the car yielded one more pound bag of the white powder. That amount of crystal methamphetamine has an estimated street value of $21,000, according to a law enforcement drug price list.

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com