At John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York last week, a woman’s wheelchair caught the attention of US Customs and Border Protection because the wheels weren’t turning. So they examined the device and found yellow packets in all four wheels.
Then a test was used to determine what the contents of the package were. The woman had hidden 13 kilos of cocaine in it, reports “Bild”. Converted, this amount had a value of approximately 422,000 francs.
She wanted to smuggle the cocaine from the Dominican Republic to the United States. In a press release, Border Patrol said: “Our mission is to monitor borders and ports 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to prevent these dangerous drugs from potentially killing our family, friends and neighbors.”
Not an isolated case
The woman has been arrested and is awaiting a long prison sentence. It is not known whether she needs the electric wheelchair.
The fact that smugglers hide cocaine in a wheelchair is not an isolated case. Just two months ago, more than 13 kilograms were found at Milan’s Malpensa airport. Being considerably purer, the market value of this find was about 1.5 million francs. This smuggler also ended up in prison. (lrc)