With car prices being what they are, you would think that nobody would be too keen on messing up their automobile. But drug dealers aren’t just ordinary people.

Their intention is to smuggle as much of their drug of choice (typically an illegal substance that can’t easily be produced locally such as cocaine or marijuana) as is humanly possible, and preferably without the authorities catching on to their activities.

Let’s review how to find out where a drug transporter (or in other cases, a dealer) is keeping his stash while he’s on the move.

The Car

Your garden variety drug dealer has only so much space in a car. They aren’t really designed to hold things anywhere but in the cabin, so a little creativity is a must. That’s why a lot of dealers open up the interior panels of their doors, stuff in bags of “product,” and then carefully cover them back up.

At their origination and destination points, they typically have all the time they need to get done with any sort of prep work is necessary, so they can afford to be pretty meticulous about the deal. You can tell amateur work because the door looks like crap when it’s done- windows that don’t roll up, speakers that don’t work, scratches all over the place. Also, any visible screws are automatically suspect.

Behind the Gas Tank Door

Another place where your typical drug trafficker will hide small amounts of product is behind the gas tank door. While the gas tank itself is typically too complex to alter, you can store several ounces behind the door to the vehicle.

And while a vice unit equipped with sniffer dogs can easily detect such things, a lot of police officers focus too much on the inside of the vehicle, forgetting about the outside.

Under the Hood

One place where the risk taking trafficker will carry their stash is under the hood. While they need to take care to allow all of the moving parts to continue doing so, removing a few parts like the windshield washer fluid container and some of the electrical systems can be a good way of allowing the dealer to carry several kilos without it being conspicuous.

There is also some camouflage to the scent, though not nearly enough to throw off the dogs. In events like this, the trafficker may be difficult to stop. That much product on a person is liable to be an awfully long prison sentence, and there is no man so dangerous as he who has nothing to lose.

When you want to figure out where a drug dealer may be carrying his portable stash, you need to think as creatively as they do. Some ingenious traffickers keep the stuff in hollowed out portions of their seats, install false floors and ceilings into their cars with hidden compartments, and store kilo after kilo behind the dash board.

These aren’t necessarily the first places law enforcement will look, and they need to have a probable cause to search before they can so much as reach a hand into the cabin of one’s vehicle. Of course, anything that looks out of place can be suspicious.

Annie is a lifestyle and finance blogger for Dobovo, the free tool to pick affordable Kiev apartments