by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:40 AM ET, Tue January 31, 2017
On Sunday, maintenance workers examining a plane which arrived in the United States from Columbia were stunned to find $434,000 worth of cocaine hidden in the nose of the aircraft.
According to The Associated Press, Tulsa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Justin Green said the American Airlines plane arrived in Miami after a flight from Bogota, Colombia, Sunday. The aircraft was flagged for maintenance and sent to Tulsa International Airport, which has a maintenance facility operated by American Airlines.
Later that day, maintenance workers examining the nose cone of the plane noticed something odd inside that looked like "a clump of insulation or a brick-like object." The repair crew called the Tulsa County Sheriff's to examine the items found hidden in the aircraft.
When police arrived at the scene, they discovered seven bricks of cocaine that weighed a combined 31 pounds. At a street value of at least $14,000 a pound, the total worth of the drug bust was estimated to be around $434,000.
After the find, Green told The AP that his department officially turned over the case to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami.
The cocaine found in the nose of the American Airlines plane is just the latest attempt to smuggle drugs through airports. In 2016, a flight attendant was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for attempting to transport 60 pounds of cocaine through security.
Later in 2016, another woman attempted to go through security with $90,000 of cocaine hidden in her bags, but she was caught and arrested as well.
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