Commercial truck full of corn and over 60 kg of cocaine nabbed at Manitoba border

Border agents seized more than 60 kilograms of what’s believed to be cocaine hidden by loads of corn in a commercial truck that crossed the Manitoba border earlier this month, authorities say.

Officers with a team of drug-detecting dogs found bricks of the suspected cocaine concealed in a modified compartment within the truck’s trailer after it arrived at the Emerson border crossing in the early morning hours of July 14, director Rossel Lapointe of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said at a Thursday morning news conference at the Manitoba RCMP D Division headquarters in Winnipeg.

The total amount of suspected drugs seized was roughly 63 kilograms, which Lapointe said is estimated to have a street value of $6 million.

“This is the agency’s largest land border narcotics seizure in Manitoba in the last five years,” he said.

It’s “very common” for officers to find people trying to move drugs across the border, he said.

“We had to offload the commercial product that was covering the concealed compartment, and then using … tools, detection technology, we were able to manually open the compartment ourselves.”

The Winnipeg man driving the truck was arrested at the scene and charged with importation of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, said Insp. Joe Telus, division intelligence officer with RCMP federal policing.

He appeared in federal court in Winnipeg on July 19 and was released with conditions, Telus said.

Rossel Lapointe of the Canada Border Services Agency says roughly 63 kilograms of suspected drugs were seized. He estimated the drugs have a street value of $6 million. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)

Lapointe of the CBSA would not say what factors lead border agents to further search certain vehicles. He would also not say where the accused in the Manitoba case was coming from or headed, and whether he has any links to organized crime groups, citing the ongoing investigation.

The suspected drugs seized at the scene will be tested by Health Canada to determine whether initial drug tests that identified the substance as cocaine were correct, Telus said.

He said the roughly 63 kilograms seized could equal 60,000 individual drug deals that will not happen.

“That is 60,000 times a drug dealer’s not going to be active near our homes, in our communities — making us all safer,” he said.

“I wish I could say our work stops here, but there are more drugs finding their way across our border and into our communities.”