Arrested at New York airport |
A woman smuggles 13 kilos of cocaine in a wheelchair
You can’t blame the drug cartels for a lack of creativity when they smuggle their stuff…
A woman was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York last week. Emelinda Paulino De Rivas was caught trying to smuggle nearly 30 pounds of cocaine into the United States. And in his electric wheelchair!
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was surprised by the arrival from the Dominican Republic because the wheels of his wheelchair didn’t turn. Then they put the device through its paces.
The fabric has a market value of 430,000 euros
Lo and behold: during the search, the border guards found an “anomaly” on all four wheels, as the official report states. Closer inspection revealed that the tires were filled with yellow packets. A confirmed test: cocaine! Experts estimate the market value of the substance at the equivalent of around 430,000 euros.
The woman from the Dominican Republic was arrested and handed over to specialists from the Department of Internal Security. She faces a long prison sentence. It is not known whether she is also wheelchair dependent.
Not the first wheelchair smuggling
Cocaine was also supposed to be smuggled in a wheelchair to Milan, but here too the operation went badly
The Border Patrol wrote in a press release: “Our mission is to police borders and ports 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to prevent these dangerous drugs from potentially killing our family, friends and neighbors.”
Just two months ago, a drug dog attacked another wheelchair user at Milan Malpensa airport. Here the little more than 13 kilograms of cocaine were disguised as padding for the seat of the electric wheelchair. The substance was much purer than that found in the USA and had a market value of over 1.5 million euros. This smuggler also ended up in prison.
