TURNPIKE STOP FINDS COCAINE

In Chester County, 1,804 pounds of the drug were discovered. The street
value topped $16 million.

It started as a routine traffic stop, then turned into one of the state's
largest drug seizures when a state trooper pulled over a tractor-trailer
rumbling down the Pennsylvania Turnpike and found 1,804 pounds of pure
cocaine, authorities said yesterday.State police and Chester County District
Attorney Anthony Sarcione yesterday displayed 820 kilos, which they said had
a street value of more than $16 million. The cocaine was neatly wrapped in
plastic and packaged in crates with a shipment of the herb cilantro.

This is the second case in the region involving cocaine and cilantro in the
last five months. In September, neighbors in Horsham Township, Montgomery
County, complained about the smell of rotting cilantro, leading police to
discover 1,227 pounds of cocaine in a truck.

The Chester County seizure, which occurred Sunday in Honey Brook Township,
also comes in the wake of a 1.25-ton cocaine shipment discovered among
frozen cauliflower last month in North Jersey.

"This is huge," Sarcione said, staring at the cocaine, with pieces of fresh
cilantro clinging to the wrap.

Police piled the kilos chest-high at the Embreeville barracks, where it will
be secured as evidence for trial.

"This is even big for the feds," Sarcione said.

"If it's not the biggest[in Pennsylvania], it's right up there," said
Special Agent Larry McElynn of the Drug Enforcement Administration in
Philadelphia. "It's certainly in the top 10."

In the last year, more cocaine has been coming into the Philadelphia area,
McElynn said. After increasing enforcement decreased the amount of cocaine
coming from the Caribbean, more drugs are coming from Colombia via Mexico,
he said.

Authorities believe Sunday's shipment came from South America, passed
through New York, and was heading to an area west of Pennsylvania, said
State Police Maj. Tyree Blocker.

"Pennsylvania is a pipeline for coke in the northeastern part of the United
States," Blocker said. The investigation, he said, is continuing.

The driver of the 53-foot Kenworth tractor-trailer, Jorge Luna, 40, of San
Juan, Texas, remains in the Chester County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Authorities said Trooper Thomas Martinez was patrolling the turnpike when he
spotted the truck heading west and erratically changing lanes near the
Morgantown exit.

After pulling the truck over, authorities said, the driver gave written
permission to have the vehicle searched. The truck was taken to the
Bowmansville barracks, where police dug through the cilantro to find the
cocaine.

Luna is charged with possession of cocaine and possession with intent to
deliver. Blocker said that there were no other suspects associated with this
shipment, but that investigators were trying to determine where the drugs
came from and where the driver was going.