Record $18 Million Cocaine Bust for Philadelphia

(The AEGIS Alliance) – PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – A drug bust by authorities seized over 450 kilograms of cocaine at the Port of Philadelphia on Tuesday morning. This is a new record bust for Philadelphia.

Bricks of cocaine were hidden inside duffel bags discovered inside a shipping container on board of the MSC Desiree, which was headed from Colombia to Europe.

Local and Federal authorities performed inspections on the container after they noticed bolts on the door were tampered with.

The approximate 992 pounds of cocaine seized in total, has a value of around $18 million on the street, and is the highest amount ever seized in Philadelphia.

Just last week, authorities seized 3,200 pounds of cocaine, that had a street value of about $77 million. It was hidden behind boxes of dried fruit on a cargo ship at the Port of New York and New Jersey. It was the biggest cocaine busy at that port in a quarter of a century.

Federal agents have been giving more attention to tampered shipping containers because cocaine is making a comeback due to a rise in crop production in Columbia, which is not eradicating coca plants anymore.

Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.