PHILADELPHIA — Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized a $1.3 million load of cocaine hidden in the technical space of a passenger plane that landed at Philadelphia International Airport last Friday, the agency said in a press release.
The plane arrived in Philadelphia from the Dominican Republic, CBP said.
The incident is still under investigation. No arrests have been made at present, according to CBP.
Officers from CBP routinely examine aircraft spaces after flights arrive from overseas locations, the agency said. During a search of the Santo Domingo, D.R., flight, officers discovered 16 brick-shaped objects concealed under a blanket in an avionics technical space.
Officers extracted the bricks and took them to CBP’s inspection station after they completed the aircraft inspection.
"An examination of the bricks uncovered a white, powdery substance that field-tested positive for the properties of cocaine hydrochloride," CBP said in a statement.
The cocaine weighed 18.894 kilograms, or a little more than 41 pounds, 10 ounces. The cocaine had a street value of about $1,330,000, according to CBP.
“Drug trafficking organizations work very hard to smuggle their dangerous drugs to the United States and Customs and Border Protection officers must be equally on point to intercept this community poison,” Joseph Martella, area port director for CBP’s Area Port of Philadelphia said in a statement.
During the three days leading up to the discovery, the aircraft made passenger service stops at domestic airports in New York City, Miami, San Diego, and Philadelphia before arriving from Santo Domingo, CBP said.
CBP said its officers and agents seized an average of 4,732 pounds of dangerous drugs every day at our nation’s air, land, and sea ports of entry.
See what else CBP accomplished during a typical day in 2021.
