30 Pounds Of Cocaine Hidden In Wheelchair At Airport By Hudson County Man: Cops

UNION CITY, NJ — A Hudson County man was recently caught with more than 30 pounds of cocaine hidden inside his electric wheelchair at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshal Airport, U.S. Customs and Border Protection(CBP) announced Tuesday.

Gabriel Ruiz, 34, of Union City faces state felony narcotics importation and possession charges, according to CBP officers.

On June 20, after Ruiz arrived from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic he was referred to a secondary examination by CBP officers. During that exam, officers said they X-rayed his Jazzy 614 electric wheelchair and found anomalies inside the seat and back cushions.

Officers pulled out 13 plastic-wrapped bricks that contained a white powdery substance inside the cushions. They used field test kits and a handheld elemental isotope analysis tool and identified the powdery substance as cocaine.

The 13 cocaine bricks weighed a combined 13.7 kilograms, or 30 pounds and three ounces. The cocaine has an estimated street value of nearly $1 million.

"Concealing dangerous drugs inside wheelchair seat cushions is unusual," said Thomas Heffernan, Acting Area Port Director for CBP’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."

CBP officers said they turned Ruiz and the cocaine over to Maryland Transportation Authority police.

According to CBP, its officers in Charlotte, NC also discovered 23 pounds of cocaine concealed inside of a wheelchair on May 31. Both the Baltimore and Charlotte travelers arrived from the Dominican Republic.

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