KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | Driver held, cocaine discovered in truck at Blaine
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Associated Press - October 13, 2009 7:25 PM ET
SEATTLE (AP) - A truck driver headed into Canada is being being held after he was found to be hauling nearly 193 pounds of cocaine.
Forty-6-year-old Sukhvinder Shoker of Surrey, British Columbia, was stopped Saturday by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at Blaine, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
They report finding 24 boxes containing packages of cocaine behind a retrofitted wall in Shoker's 2005 Freightliner commercial van.
Lorie Dankers, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Seattle, says the illegal drug has an estimated street value of $1.74 million.
Shoker remains in custody following a court appearance Tuesday.
He says he delivered a load of household goods in Portland, Ore., last Wednesday He says the boxes were later loaded into his truck by two men in California.
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