Drug Dog's Nose Aids $10M Fruit Truck Cocaine Bust: NYC Officials

NEW YORK — Something's rotten in The Bronx. A police dog sniffed out a secret compartment in a truck filled with rotting fruit that was apparently used to stash more than $10 million of cocaine, officials said Friday.

The Port Authority K-9 named Balu detected drugs in a trailer parked in a warehouse on Longfellow Avenue Thursday afternoon that authorities searched after seizing 154 pounds of cocaine from Miguel Marte-Veras, according to the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office.

Authorities had found only rotten papyas, oregano and coconuts inside the truck, officials said. But Balu's nose led them to a hidden compartment in the top of the trailer that was used to carry some or all of the stockpile, according to the prosecutor's office.

Officials say they found the drugs — which were set to be distributed throughout New York City and the Northeast — in Marte-Veras's Hyundai Santa Fe at about 1 p.m. Thursday. The 32-year-old Bronx resident has been charged with operating as a major trafficker and criminal possession of a controlled substance.

"This investigation uncovered a commercial warehouse close to the busy Hunts Point markets that served as a front for international narcotics importation," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said in a statement. "The sheer amount of cocaine seized in one week reflects the magnitude of this drug operation."

The fruit trailer was on one of two trucks that investigators saw enter the warehouse Wednesday and Thusday, officials said. Authorities had seen Marte-Veras's car at the warehouse in the past and decided to pull it over Thursday afternoon, the prosecutor's office said.

Inside they found two black suitcases filled with 70 brick-shaped packages each holding a kilogram of cocaine, officials said. The drugs have a wholesale value of nearly $2.5 million and a street value of more than $10 million, according to Brennan's office.

Authorities got a warrant and searched the warehouse, where they found the trailer with the hidden compartment at about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, officials said. While it did not contain drugs at the time, the fact that Balu detected narcotics inside indicates it was used to carry them, the prosecutor's office said.

Marte-Veras is slated to be arraigned Friday afternoon, officials said. The investigation was handled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, which comprises city, state and federal law-enforcement agencies.