By Phil Brink of FreightWaves,
Federal officers uncovered more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine concealed beneath floorboards on a commercial truck’s attached flatbed trailer. The truck arrived at California’s Calexico Port of Entry. Authorities estimated the recovered narcotics were worth more than $20 million. The shipment also included 269 bundles of rebar.
The driver, Jose Manuel Lopez Lopez, was the truck’s only occupant, according to federal prosecutors. Lopez, 44, entered the United States from Mexicali, Mexico. Officers arrested him after finding 366 packages within the trailer. The cocaine weighed 1,002.13 pounds, or 454.56 kilograms.
Inspectors find drugs beneath trailer floor
Customs and Border Protection officers X-rayed the attached flatbed during the border inspection. The scan showed anomalies in its wooden floorboards. A drug-sniffing dog then alerted officers to the equipment. Investigators unloaded the rebar before removing the planks.
Officers found packages stuffed beneath those boards, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. Homeland Security Investigations agents assisted the inquiry. Drug Enforcement Administration personnel also participated in the case. Prosecutors described the amount as “a tremendous amount of drugs, even by the standards of this district.”
The recovery marked the Southern District of Californ
