Customs officers at New York’s Kennedy International Airport seized US$450,000 ($729,400) of cocaine from a traveller who was smuggling the drugs in the wheels of her wheelchair, federal authorities announced.
The bust happened last week when Customs and Border Patrol officers stopped a woman travelling from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic with a wheelchair whose wheels weren’t turning, agency officials said.
The officers X-rayed the wheelchair and noticed an “anomaly” in all four wheels, CPB officials said in a news release. Officers checked the tyres and found a white powder that tested positive for cocaine, they said.
A total of 12.7kg of cocaine with a street value of US$450,000 was removed from the wheels, officials said.
