FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 6, 2003

CONTACT: SID GAULDEN, 803-896-8755

HIGHWAY PATROL SEIZES 63 POUNDS OF COCAINE

IN TRAFFIC STOP WITH $5 MILLION STREET VALUE

COLUMBIA – The South Carolina Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol arrested a man today on I-95 for trafficking more than 63 pounds of cocaine from Miami, Florida to New York City. 

The arrest came after members of the Highway Patrol ACE team stopped two vehicles on I-95 in Jasper County, a 1993 Jeep and 2003 Chevrolet rental van, for following too closely and speeding. The vehicles were traveling together.

During the course of the traffic stop, a K-9 unit and other troopers from Troop 6 were called in to assist in the search of one of the vehicles. Troopers found several bags of cocaine in hidden compartments under the driver’s and passenger’s seats of the Jeep.

The driver of the Jeep, Fausto Depna, 54, from Miami, FL, was charged with trafficking cocaine. The driver of the rental van, Jorge L. Rivera, 38, from Miramar, FL, was wanted in New York on an outstanding warrant for armed robbery. Both men are being held in the Jasper County Jail.

This is the largest seizure by the Highway Patrol since a traffic stop in August 2002 on I-95 in Clarendon County led to the seizure of drugs worth about $30 million.