$1M Worth Of Cocaine Seized At BWI Airport, NJ Man Arrested In Drug Bust: Report

LINTHICUM, MD — Authorities announced Tuesday that they found nearly $1 million worth of cocaine hidden in a traveler's wheelchair at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

A press release said the Maryland Transportation Authority Police arrested 34-year-old Gabriel Ruiz of Union City, New Jersey.

Ruiz faces state felony narcotics importation and possession charges, officials said. The Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office is handling the prosecution.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spotted Ruiz when he arrived from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on June 20. Officers said they referred Ruiz for a secondary examination.

Customs officers then took an X-ray of his Jazzy 614 electric wheelchair and found anomalies in the seat and back cushions. Investigators said they probed the cushions and removed 13 plastic-wrapped bricks that contained a white powdery substance.

Authorities said they conducted field tests and identified the substance as cocaine. The bricks weighed a combined 13.7 kilograms, or 30 pounds and three ounces.

Police arrested Ruiz on June 21, Customs and Border Protection said.

The arrest came weeks after officers said they found 23 pounds of cocaine inside a different wheelchair at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina.

“Concealing dangerous drugs inside wheelchair seat cushions is unusual,” said Thomas Heffernan, acting area port director for Customs and Border Protection’s Area Port of Baltimore. “Transnational criminal organizations work very hard to conceal their illicit drugs, but this cocaine seizure proves once again that Customs and Border Protection officers are up to the task of protecting our communities by finding the drug gangs’ creatively concealed contraband.”

Customs officers and agents seize an average of 4,732 pounds of drugs each day at the nation’s air, land and sea ports. To learn what customs does in a typical day, read this summary of busts.