Truck hauling cheese powder from Wisconsin busted for cocaine at Blue Water Bridge
Inset photo: Chandan Tayal. Photo credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations
FOX 2 - A truck driver bound for Canada was stopped at the border smuggling 60 kilos of cocaine aboard a cheese powder shipment in Port Huron.
The backstory:
During an inspection of the commercial truck at the Blue Water Bridge, 55 shrink-wrapped bricks of cocaine were found in two cardboard boxes in the early morning hours of June 11.
The cocaine was inside Home Depot boxes discovered underneath the lower bunk of the cab.
The driver, Chandan Tayal, told investigators that was hauling wood pallets and cheese powder from Wisconsin to Brampton, Ontario.
The 27-year-old also claimed he watched the company seal the truck, adding that he did not know about the boxes of cocaine, in which one of the vacuumed sealed packages was partially opened.
Tayal was arrested and detained while the Marysville police K9 unit arrived and an officer positively alerted officials to the presence of narcotics.
The first box had 25 sealed packages weighing 27.47 kilograms, while in the second box an additional 30 packages weighing 33.03 kilos were found.
In total, about 60.5 kilos of cocaine were retrieved in the bust. Tayal is being held in the St. Clair County Jail as the investigation continues.
The Source: Information for this report is from United States Customs & Border Protection.