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Customs: 3.5 pounds of cocaine seized at PHL

By Sam Wood, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: December 15, 2011

The emptied piece of luggage was unusually heavy.

Wilson Miguel Jaquez Torres, 23, arrived at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday afternoon on a flight from the Dominican Republic.

Torres, of Philadelphia, approached a customs officer with a sports duffel bag in hand. The officer got a "tingling feeling," said Steve Sapp, spokesman for Customs and Border Patrol Protection. Something didn't seem right with Torres or his baggage. So the officer referred him for a second inspection.

"With nothing in it, it was still unusually heavy," Sapp said. "So he stabbed a knife into the bottom of the bag. The blade came back covered with a white powdery substance."

Secreted along the bottom of the bag was a big plastic-covered parcel that looked like a flattened pork loin sealed in Cryovac. D.E.A. agents say it was more than three-and-a-half pounds of powder cocaine with a street value of $112,000.

Torres, and the suspected drugs, were turned over to the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case is being investigated by the District Attorney's office.

"We get people coming in from that the Dominican Republic all the time," Sapp said. "More than 98 percent of them are good, hardworking people coming back from vacation.

"But we do know that a lot of drugs come in on that on that flight," Sapp said.

Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 215-854-2796, samwood@phillynews.com, or @inqwriter on Twitter.

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