Drug info - US border cops nab retiree with drug load

[enquirewithin]

PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - U.S. Border police arrested an 81-year-old man as he tried to cross from Mexico with 175 pounds (80 kg) of cocaine stuffed into his car, officials said on Wednesday.
Officers at Nogales, Arizona, found the cocaine and arrested the elderly driver on Tuesday, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Brian Levin.
"It is pretty much the limit of what I have seen," Levin told Reuters by telephone. "I don't remember encountering someone quite this old trying to smuggle drugs into this country ... and he was driving an unusually large amount of cocaine."
The man arrested is a resident of Nogales, Arizona but officials did not immediately know if he was an American or Mexican citizen.

Nogales, which lies some 165 miles south of Phoenix, is a key transit point used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle marijuana, cocaine and heroin to U.S. markets.

Levin said border police rarely see loads of more than 70 to 80 pounds (32 to 36 kg) of cocaine in passenger cars.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...ER.xml&src=rss

[Forthesevenlakes]

well, at least swim has hope that he can grow up to be a "cool old guy".
wonder if this person was a normally law-abiding citizen who was doing this to make ends meet, or if he had been in the dope trade for decades? somehow i dont think the press will delve that deep into the story...

[hyperlite]

damn! I guess it beats the rush one gets from bingo......I'm gonna suspect option "B" and say he's been in the game for a while........

[levdog]

surely this should be in the drug news section. dont hate me. just saying.

[Jatelka]

SWIJ thinks that news stories about specific substances are eminently suited to that particular forum.