A New Jersey man was caught at an airport with more than 30 pounds of cocaine stashed away in his electric wheelchair, authorities said.
Gabriel Ruiz, 34, of Union City, was nabbed on June 20 at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where he was returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic, according to US Customs and Border Protection officials.
Agents using an X-ray machine during a secondary examination found 13 plastic-wrapped bricks containing a white powdery substance inside the seat and back cushions of Ruiz’s Jazzy 614 electric wheelchair.
Subsequent field test kits determined the packages contained 30 pounds and 3 ounces of cocaine – with an estimated street value of nearly $1 million, CBP officials said.
Ruiz was arrested on felony narcotics importation and possession charges. It’s unclear if he’s hired an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
The noteworthy bust came just weeks after US Customs and Border Protection agents caught a man with 23 pounds of cocaine hidden in his electric wheelchair at an airport in North Carolina. Alexander Lopez-Morel, 22, was also returning from the Dominican Republic when he was arrested at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on May 31, authorities said.
“Concealing dangerous drugs inside wheelchair seat cushions is unusual,” CBP’s Thomas Heffernan said in a statement. “Transnational criminal organizations work very hard to conceal their illicit drugs, but this cocaine seizure proves once again that Customs and Border Protection officers are up to the task of protecting our communities by finding the drug gangs’ creatively concealed contraband.”
CBP agents seize an average of 4,732 pounds of drugs daily at air, land and sea points of entry, the agency said.