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Federal agents on Saturday seized a little more than 128 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $4 million hidden in the tires of a vehicle driven to the Falfurrias checkpoint by an Alamo woman.
Border Patrol first encountered Olga Lydia Segundo in a 2010 white Chevrolet Silverado at approximately 7:30 p.m. that day.
She said she was heading to Austin to apply and do some tests for a job, but when asked what kind of job, she didn’t respond, grew nervous and started searching through her cellphone, according to a criminal complaint.
Because of that nervous behavior, a Border Patrol agent asked if she would consent to an x-ray of the vehicle and she agreed.
That process revealed anomalies in all four of the vehicle’s tires.
“Agents cut through one of the tires and discovered welding casing’s around the rim of the tire,” the complaint stated. “(Agents) further inspected by drilling through the welded casing and a white powdery substance poured out of the welding casing.”
In all, agents found 24 bundles of cocaine hidden in the tires, according to the complaint.
During an interview with Drug Enforcement Administration special agents, Segundo provided nothing but inconsistencies in her story.
For instance, the DEA said in the complaint that she later said the job she was going to apply for was in Houston, not Austin.
Segundo also could not provide a name of the company or a phone number for it, according to the complaint.
She did maintain that she didn’t know the cocaine was in the vehicle, but eventually blamed a cousin, who she could also not provide a phone number for and the truck wasn’t registered to the name she provided for her cousin, according to the complaint.
“Based on the information provided by Segundo, agents have identified several inconsistencies in her account of the events,” the complaint stated. “When agents asked Segundo how the cocaine got in the truck, Segundo responded that it must have been her cousin who gave her the truck like that.”
The DEA agents, however, said that based on training and experience, they don’t believe drug trafficking organizations would place a large amount of cocaine in a vehicle and allow it to be left at a residence for a month. Segundo claimed her cousin left the truck for her a month prior and that it hadn’t been used and hadn’t entered Mexico.
She was scheduled to make a first appearance in Corpus Christi federal court Tuesday morning.
