Cocaine worth $77 million and weighing 3,200 pounds was seized at a New Jersey port, the biggest of haul in 25 years, authorities said Monday.
The massive stash was hidden in a shipping container that arrived at Port Newark on February 28.
But a search revealed 60 packages containing a white, powdery substance which later tested positive for cocaine.
The seizure was the port’s second-largest for cocaine and the biggest since May 1994, according to Troy Miller, United States Customs and Border Protection’s director of New York field operations.
CBP made the bust along with the US Coast Guard, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the NYPD and New York State Police.
“Cocaine, New York’s nemesis of the ’90s, is back indicating traffickers’ push to build an emerging customer base of users mixing cocaine with fentanyl,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan.
“This record-breaking seizure draws attention to this new threat and shows law enforcement’s collaborative efforts in seizing illicit drugs before it gets to the streets and into users’ hands.”
The drugs were turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation.
In 1994, the feds uncovered around 6,600 pounds of cocaine inside a shipment of roofing material that came into Port Newark. Three men all natives of Colombia were arrested