GREENFIELD — A traffic stop along Interstate 70 by officers with a special drug interdiction team led to the arrest of two men and the seizure of more than 30 pounds of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.
Officials believe the street value for the drugs is over $1 million total, said Hancock County Sheriff’s Sgt. Nick Ernstes, coordinator for the Pro-Active Criminal Enforcement team, or PACE, which patrols the interstate in a long-running campaign to intercept drugs along the busy smuggling corridor.
The PACE squad, a multi-jurisdiction task force consisting of sheriff’s deputies from the Hancock County and Henry County sheriff’s departments, made the stop around 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, in Henry County.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryDeputies said they pulled over a 2020 Jeep Cherokee near the 115-mile marker along eastbound I-70, west of the interchange with State Road 3, for following too closely. Deputies became suspicious of the SUV’s occupants and received consent from the driver to search it.
Deputies focused on an electronic speaker box in the cargo area of the vehicle. A K9 officer, Manni, alerted his handlers that drugs might be inside the box. When deputies opened the speaker, they found 15 kilograms — or about 33 pounds — of suspected heroin, fentanyl and cocaine hidden inside.
Officers said the inside of speaker box had been coated with spray foam to suppress the scent, but Manni detected the drugs anyway.
Deputies arrested the driver, Leandro Collado, and his passenger, Ramen Coca without incident.
Collado, 27, Brooklyn, New York, was arrested on two counts of dealing narcotics and one count of dealing in a controlled substance. Coca, 39, who was listed as being from the Dominican Republic, was arrested on the same charges. All are Level 2 felonies and carry long prison sentences.
Neither had appeared in court by the Daily Reporter’s deadline Wednesday afternoon, according to Henry County court records. Coca, however, is also being held on a federal detainer since he is in the United States illegally for overstaying as a tourist, officials said in a news release.
