Traffic stop nets more than $1M in cocaine
DPS trooper finds drugs on U.S. 59 near Louise
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

OFF THE STREETS: DPS troopers seized more than $1 million in cocaine Sunday. Contributed Photo

A state trooper stopped a tractor-trailer rig near Louise that contained more than $1 million in cocaine, bagged, bundled and bound for the Windy City.

Trooper Alfred Ochoa stopped the vehicle around 9 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 13 on U.S. 59 as it was making its way north from McAllen to Chicago, according to Pierce Department of Public Safety Sgt. Danny Terronez.

Ochoa pulled the rig over because it was driving on the shoulder of the highway, and the trooper felt the driver was extremely nervous while being questioned. Ochoa asked the driver - Alfredo Campos, 37, of Penitas - about his travels and the trooper didn't feel the driver's story was plausible.

The trooper then asked and received consent to search the rig, which was carrying produce. El Campo police officer Mark Biskup and his K-9 partner Apache were called to the scene, and the drug-sniffing dog alerted to both the truck and its trailer.

The tractor-trailer was taken to an undisclosed location, and inside troopers found 65 kilograms - 143 pounds - of cocaine in 50 separate bundles.

"They bagged and wrapped the cocaine, then smeared the outside with axle grease, then placed that inside another bag," Sgt. Terronez said. "They were probably trying to fool the (drug-sniffing) dogs."

DPS estimates the street value of that much cocaine, if sold on the streets of Hous- ton, at $1,137,500.

"If it had made it to Chicago, it would've been worth a whole lot more," Terronez said.

He called Sunday's seizure "significant," and said it is one of the largest so far this year by troopers in Texas.

"Troopers in Wharton County and throughout the state of Texas do an outstanding job on criminal interdiction whether it involves drugs or other (criminal charges)," Terronez said.

Campos was booked into the Wharton County Jail at 6 p.m. Sunday for manufacturing/delivery of a controlled substance. He was held on $1 million bond as of 1 p.m. Monday.

U.S. 59 is a well-known corridor for both drugs and money derived from criminal enterprises.

In 2007, DPS Pierce troopers nabbed at least 22 pounds of cocaine, 46 pounds of marijuana, $113,635 in suspected drug cash and 1,000 tablets of Xanax in busts along U.S. 59 in Wharton County.

In January 2006, state troopers arrested a Corpus Christi couple after a wild chase through town during which they allegedly tossed 2 kilos (4.4 pounds) of cocaine from their pickup.

During that year, more marijuana was seized by state troopers in Wharton County - 10,066 pounds - than in any other of Texas' 254 counties, comprising 10.5 percent of the statewide total of 95,653 pounds.

As well, troopers seized $4.3 million in suspicious money in Wharton County in 2006, about a fifth of the $20,874,816 seized in Texas in 2006.

In 2005, troopers from the Pierce DPS office seized at least 32 kilos of cocaine and $2.8 million in alleged drug money during stops along U.S. 59.