Tempe police have arrested a woman who they say left her daughter alone in a car with drugs.

On Saturday evening, 26-year-old Lupita Alvarez-Beltran left her 4-year-old daughter alone in her car while she went inside a bar to look for her cellphone. Alvarez-Beltran’s left the car parked south of Fifth Street on Mill Avenue with the engine running. Approximately three minutes after police arrived at the vehicle, Alvarez-Beltran returned to her car.

When Alvarez-Beltran obtained her ID at the request of the policeman, they reported smelling a strong odor of burnt fentanyl emitting from the car. Officers performed a search on car and found 18 M-30 pills. Police also found pills inside Alvarez-Beltran’s purse, which was on the front passenger’s seat where the young girl was sitting. The child was not restrained in a car seat or with a seatbelt.

Alvarez-Beltran informed police she had been arrested earlier that morning at Varsity Tavern bar and was inside looking for her cell phone.  She admitted to officers she knew drugs and paraphernalia were in the car because her brother had smoked inside the car.

Alvarez-Beltran was booked into jail on one count of child abuse, a class 2 felony.