( 4UMF NEWS ) Georgia Cops Make $38 Million Cocaine Bust:
The Telfair County Sheriff’s Office seized 382 kilograms of cocaine during the weekend in one of the largest drug busts in recent state history.
The cocaine — more than 840 pounds, with an estimated street value of $38 million — was found after deputies searched a produce truck Saturday afternoon that turned out to contain more than tomatoes.
Half the drugs were on the truck, and the rest was found buried in large, plastic containers in the woods near Lumber City, Sheriff Johnny Smith said Monday.
“We were up all night going through cases and cases of tomatoes,” he said.
It was the largest seizure in Telfair County history and the largest in the federal Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta office in more than 15 years, Smith said.
Authorities also seized an undisclosed amount of cash.
Authorities gleaned information in the case from a traffic stop at an undisclosed Telfair County location that led them to the rental truck Saturday.
Smith said he was hiding in the woods watching for the truck when it passed by on Golden Isles Highway about two miles north of Lumber City.
He waited as the truck pulled into a driveway at 2739 East Golden Isles Parkway, then drove through the gate himself.
Authorities have charged four people with trafficking cocaine: Bertin Rivera-Uriostegui, 42, of Lumber City; his brother David Rivera-Uriostegui, 31, of Marietta; Silvina Sanchez Santa Maria, 41, of Lumber City; and Natividad Salazar III, 21, who told authorities he lived in Hazelhurst, although his driver’s license showed a McRae address.
Two others ran into a wooded area with rough terrain and underbrush.
“Evidently they recognized my truck,” Smith said.
