FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 18, 2004

CONTACT: SID GAULDEN, 803-896-8409

 

HIGHWAY PATROL ACE TEAM SEIZES HEROIN

IN TRAFFIC STOP WORTH $15 MILLION

 

COLUMBIA – The South Carolina Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol ACE team has seized 11 kilos of heroin with a street value of up to $15 million in a Dorchester County traffic stop yesterday on I-95. This was the largest heroin seizure in the ACE team’s history.

 

The ACE team, the Highway Patrol’s drug interdiction unit, stopped a 2005 Hertz rental car for driving left of center and failure to maintain lane around 4 p.m. A K-9 dog made a positive alert on the vehicle. Troopers found packages of heroin hidden on top of the spare tire under the vehicle and inside the right rear door of the vehicle.

 

Gustavo Castano, 51, and passenger, Alba C. Castano, 48, both of Woodside, New York, have been arrested and charged with trafficking heroin.

 

The married couple was traveling from Jacksonville, Fla., to New York, NY.

 

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SI/34/04