NEW YORK – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized cocaine worth an estimated $450,000 on the street hidden in a passenger’s wheelchair at the John CF Kennedy in New York City, the agency announced Monday.
Emelinda Paulino De Rivas, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, arrived in New York on Nov. 10 on a flight from Punta Cana on Nov. 10, according to the authorities’ report. The report said Rivas was traveling in a wheelchair when CBP agents noticed that The chair didn’t spin, so they checked and found that there was an anomaly with the four wheels.
Officers evaluated the wheels and found the white powder inside them was cocaine, the statement said.
Rivas was arrested for importing a controlled substance and turned over to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The weight of the seized cocaine was about 28 kilos.
This translates to about 75,000 doses (100-200mg), a lethal dose of cocaine is about 1-3 grams, so the amount seized by the CBP and kept out of our neighborhoods amounts to about 6,000 lethal doses.
“CBP remains steadfast and determined to work with our partners to identify the transnational crime networks responsible for importing these deadly drugs into our neighborhoods,” said Francis J. Russo, director of field operations at CBP New York. “CBP’s mission is to secure borders and ports of entry 24/7/365 to prevent these dangerous drugs from potentially killing our family, friends and neighbors.”
Rivas now faces federal drug smuggling charges and will be arraigned by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District Court of the United States in New York.
All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
