LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jeffersontown Police intercepted a "significant amount" of illegal drugs that were headed to Louisville's streets.
It started with a random traffic stop and a semi in a parking lot on Bluegrass Parkway. But there were some red flags that caused officers to investigate further.
Police initially observed the semi on Wednesday afternoon traveling on Bluegrass Parkway with a cracked windshield.Â
Jeffersontown Police found 50 kilos of cocaine during a traffic stop on March 8, 2023.
"The guy driving the semi pulled up in front of a no parking sign in that parking lot and parked his semi-tractor-trailer," Jeffersontown Police Chief Rick Sanders said.
Sanders said the man behind the wheel was Eduardo Javier Tapia.Â
"They then asked the driver to produce documentation for his truck and his CDL license, which he could not do, he couldn't produce," Sanders said.
Sanders said Tapia's behavior and home address were red flags.
"The fact that this guy is coming from Brownsville, Texas, just across the border from Matamoros, where the cartels just kidnapped four Americans," Sanders said. "Yeah, I think there's a great possibility this ties into cartels in Mexico."
That's when officers brought in the K-9 unit.
"Maya came and identified that there was a contraband, a substance, in the truck," Sanders said. "They then proceeded to search the truck, where they found in the sleeping compartment, 50 kilos of cocaine."
That's equivalent in weight to about four bags of Miracle-Gro.
"Retail value is upwards of $5 million worth of cocaine," Sanders said. "So, this is a substantial amount of drugs we've taken off the street."
Sanders said this could've also been a matter of life and death.
"Last week, detectives responded to a home in Jeffersontown where an 11-month-old got ahold of her parent's cocaine and overdosed on that, nearly killed her," Sanders said.
Sanders said once the case works through the legal system, the drugs will be destroyed.
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