NEW YORK—Customs officers at New York’s Kennedy International Airport seized $450,000 worth of cocaine from a traveler who was smuggling the drugs in the wheels of her wheelchair, federal authorities announced.
The bust happened Nov. 10 when Customs and Border Patrol officers stopped a woman traveling from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic with a wheelchair whose wheels weren’t turning, agency officials said.
The officers X-rayed the wheelchair and noticed an “anomaly” in all four wheels, CPB officials said in a news release. Officers checked the tires and found a white powder that tested positive for cocaine, they said.
A total of 28 pounds (12.7 kilos) of cocaine with a street value of $450,000 was removed from the wheels, officials said….