Officials: 23 pounds of cocaine found in wheelchair at a North Carolina airport
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A man has been arrested after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 23 pounds of cocaine hidden in a wheelchair at a North Carolina airport last Tuesday, officials say.
CBP says a passenger, Alexander Lopez-Moral, 22, was arriving at Charlotte Douglas International Airport from the Dominican Republic. Lopez-Moral arrived using an electric wheelchair. CBP officers inspected the wheelchair and they allegedly found packages that were hidden in the seat cushions. CBP says the substances were tested and came back positive for cocaine.
“This seizure demonstrates the dynamic border environment in which CBP officers operate at CLT,” said Barry Chastain, CBP Area Port Director Charlotte. “Our officers are determined to adapt and respond to these threats in an effort to stop narcotics reaching our communities.”
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Mike Prado told WSOC that Lopez-Moral’s answers didn’t add up and his “physical purported handicap did not match up.”
CBP says officers found a total of four packages of cocaine that weighed about 23 pounds, costing around $378,000. Lopez-Moral was arrested and booked on recommended charges of felony trafficking in cocaine. The cocaine and wheelchair, CBP says, have been turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.
WSOC says that drug trafficking has become a big enough concern at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport that Homeland Security Investigations along with the CBP and local police, created a new security task force last March.
