NEW YORK: U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 43.2 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $1,382,400 at an El Paso border crossing earlier this week, officials said Wednesday.
“This was a deeply concealed drug load of significant value,” Beverly Good, CBP El Paso port director, said in a news release.
CBP officers found the cocaine at about 5 a.m. Monday at the Paso Del Norte Bridge in Downtown El Paso, officials said.
Francisco Javier Orozco Yañez, 56, of Chihuahua, was driving a 2010 Nissan Rogue when he entered from Mexico, CBP officials said. Yañez was interviewed and selected for a secondary exam.
The car was scanned and inspected by a drug-sniffing dog before officials found 40 packages of cocaine in the rocker panels and a hidden compartment in the floor of the vehicle, officials said.
Yañez was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to face charges associated with the failed smuggling attempt, officials said.
