Emelinda Paulino De Rivas was arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in NYC on suspicion of trafficking cocaine in her wheelchair, upon landing from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
The traveler landed on Thursday, November 10, federal authorities said yesterday. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers interviewed Paulino when noticed that the wheels of his wheelchair were not turning.
They did an X-ray of the chair and “noticed an abnormality in all four wheels,” he reported. Fox News. The officers examined them and they found a white powder, which tested positive for cocaine, CBP said in a statement.
They seized around 28 pounds of cocaine, which has an estimated street value of nearly half a million dollars. The officers arrested Paulino for federal narcotics smuggling charges and turned it over to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). She will be arraigned by the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District Court of New York.
The agency is “determined to work with our partners to identify the transnational criminal networks responsible for importing these deadly drugs to our neighborhoods,” CBP New York Director of Field Operations Francis Russo said in the statement.