Cocaine found in fake roof tiles in Miami

MIAMI (Reuters) Federal investigators said Friday they had seized about
3,600 pounds of cocaine hidden in fake clay roof tiles and arrested four
people in Miami and New York in connection with the shipment.

U.S. Customs inspectors at the Port of Miami examined 15 shipping
containers from Venezuela after they arrived on Oct. 28 and found two of
them contained not just the terra cotta tiles, but also exact resin
replicas filled with cocaine.

Each one of the fake tiles, displayed in Miami Friday, contained about two
pounds of cocaine, agents said.

After the cocaine was discovered, investigators allowed it to be shipped to
a warehouse. During surveillance, federal agents found the fake tiles were
intended for shipment to New York, paving the way for searches and four
arrests on Nov. 6.

One of the men arrested was Felipe Casas, the owner of the Miami warehouse
where the cocaine was stored. The other three suspects Jose Torres, Leon
Giraldo Henao, and German Caballero were arrested in New York as they
were separating real tiles from those laden with cocaine, investigators
said. All four of the suspects were Colombianborn. It was not immediately
clear whether any were naturalized U.S. citizens.

The wholesale value of the seized cocaine would be about $25$30 million.
U.S. officials said the street value could be up to 10 times that high,
depending on how the drug was processed.