It won't be a White Christmas for some people. Yesterday, the Drug Enforcement Agency, along with the NYPD and NY State Police announced a tractor trailer carrying 1,045 pounds of cocaine bound for the Big Apple was seized in NJ. It was the biggest cocaine bust this year, with a street value of $42 million, and the truck was sitting next to a warehouse in Hackensack. From the DEA's press release:
The narcotics were destined for distribution in New York City. The drug shipment, hauled by a 1999 42-foot tractor trailer with Georgia license plates and bearing a Georgia logo, was concealed in an elaborate compartment at the base of the trailer. To conceal the narcotics, metal rails and sheathing running underneath the trailer were detached, and bricks of cocaine were secreted beneath at least 30 of the bays underneath the trailer. The rails and sheathing were then re-bolted to the sides of the trailer. It took hours for agents to extract the cocaine from the underside of the trailer.
That's pretty elaborate! NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said, "We used to see narcotics confiscations as big as this one five or eight years ago."
Six people were arrested - all were from Texas, except for one NYC resident - and charged with major narcotics offenses. And last week, the DEA and NYPD busted different meth labs in the city.
