NJ Man Hid 30 Pounds Of Cocaine In Wheelchair At BWI Airport, CBP Says

BALTIMORE, MD — A New Jersey man was recently caught with more than 30 pounds of cocaine hidden inside his electric wheelchair at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshal Airport, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday.

According to CBP officers, Gabriel Ruiz, 34, of Union City, NJ faces state felony narcotics importation and possession charges. The state’s attorney in Anne Arundel County is prosecuting Ruiz.

On June 20, CBP officers said they referred Ruiz to a secondary examination after he arrived from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. During that secondary examination, officers said they x-rayed his Jazzy 614 electric wheelchair and detected anomalies within the seat and back cushions.

Officers said they probed the cushions and extracted 13 plastic-wrapped bricks that contained a white powdery substance. They used field test kits and a handheld elemental isotope analysis tool and identified the powdery substance as cocaine.

Officers said the 13 cocaine bricks weighed a combined 13.7 kilograms, or 30 pounds and three ounces. The cocaine has an estimated street value of nearly $1 million.

“Concealing dangerous drugs inside wheelchair seat cushions is unusual,” said Thomas Heffernan, Acting Area Port Director for CBP’s Area Port of Baltimore. “Transnational criminal organizations work very hard to conceal their illicit drugs, but this cocaine seizure proves once again that Customs and Border Protection officers are up to the task of protecting our communities by finding the drug gangs’ creatively concealed contraband.”

CBP officers said they turned Ruiz and the cocaine over to Maryland Transportation Authority police.

According to CBP, its officers in Charlotte, NC also discovered 23 pounds of cocaine concealed inside of a wheelchair on May 31. Both the Baltimore and Charlotte travelers arrived from the Dominican Republic.