More than 200 lbs of cocaine found during traffic stop
Published 6:53 am Monday, February 7, 2022
(AP) — Mississippi sheriff’s deputies found more than 200 pounds of cocaine and arrested two men after pulling over a large passenger bus on an interstate.
A Rankin County sheriff’s deputy stopped the bus on Friday on Interstate-20, WAPT-TV reported.
“The driver and co-driver were extremely nervous, and gave consent to search the vehicle,” Rankin County Sheriff Brian Bailey said.
During the search, deputies found 20 wrapped packages.
“A bus is a big vehicle and there is a lot of places to search, these guys have been trained. They know what to look for,” Deputy Chris Picou said.
One of the two men in the bus tried to flee while deputies were doing their search, but he didn’t get far, Picou said.
“He didn’t even make it to the road. The deputies were able to chase him down, he fell in a ditch and they apprehended him,” he said.
Ultimately, a 41-year-old man from California and a 50-year-old man from Mexico were arrested and charged with aggravated trafficking, the television station reports. They were being held in the Rankin County Adult Detention Center.
Bailey said the drugs, with an estimated street value of about $14 million, originated in Mexico.
“The way that it was packaged, we could see that there were several different shipments that came over because they were packaged differently, and they were headed to the east coast,” Bailey said. “It has to be organized crime, cartel definitely. They are in the business, so they expect losses. This one load will not shut them down. They will keep going, but this one load saved somebody’s life down the road by getting this off the streets.”