An airline passenger who traveled from the Dominican Republic to JFK International Airport in New York City on November 10 was noted to have something suspicious about her wheelchair. The wheels weren’t rolling.
Emelinda Paulino De Rivas was approached by the airport’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who questioned her and decided to inspect the wheels on her wheelchair.
First they ran her luggage and her wheelchair through the x-ray at security.
During the interrogation, customs officials inserted a probe into the tires of her wheelchair, and found white powder. It tested positive for cocaine.
Agents recovered a total of 28 pounds of cocaine from the four wheels of the wheelchair.
De Rivas was charged with an attempt to smuggle illegal drugs. The seized drugs were determined to have a street sale value amounting to about $450,000. De Rivas will be prosecuted by the US District Attorney’s Office.
Francis J. Russo, the director of CBP’s New York Field Operations, said that his department is dedicated to working with other agencies to investigate and catch the smugglers at the top who are responsible for the JFK failed drug-smuggling attempt. Russo said that the CBP’s mission is to always protect the borders and ports from illegal acts such as this one.