There was something strange about the woman’s wheelchair. Its wheels weren’t actually moving.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers noticed the wheels weren’t turning as Emelinda Paulino De Rivas of the Dominican Republic arrived Nov. 10 on a flight from Punta Cana to JFK International Airport in New York, according to the agency.
Agents decided to interview De Rivas when they saw that her wheelchair wheels were not turning. Then, they “x-rayed the wheelchair and noticed an anomaly in all four wheels.”
During a probe of the wheels, the officers discovered a white powder hidden in them, according to Customs and Border Protection. It tested positive for cocaine
Agents eventually uncovered 28 pounds of hidden cocaine in the wheelchair, which they said has a street value of $450,000. Following the discovery, De Rivas was arrested for “the importation of a controlled substance and was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.”
If it was not confiscated, the cocaine found was enough to provide 75,000 100-200 milligram doses of the drug, or roughly 6,000 lethal doses, law enforcement said.
While hiding cocaine in a wheelchair may seem like an unlikely choice, another person was stopped for just that this September in Milan, Italy, according to CBS News.
“CBP stands steadfast and determined in working with our partners to identify the trans-national criminal networks responsible for importing these deadly drugs into our neighborhoods” said Francis J. Russo, Director of CBP’s New York Field Operations.
Data from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that around 1.3 million people in the U.S. were living with a cocaine use disorder, and more than 19,000 people died from cocaine overdoses in 2020.
De Rivas faces federal narcotics smuggling charges and is expected to be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the U.S. Eastern District Court of New York. However, all defendants are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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