Guelph man arrested at Canada-U.S. border with 112 kg of cocaine

A Guelph man will appear before an American federal court Wednesday after being arrested at the Canada-United States border with over 100 kilograms of cocaine.

United States customs officers stopped the man on Sunday, as he tried to drive his tractor-trailer over the Blue Water Bridge from Port Huron, Michigan to Sarnia, Ont.

In an affidavit, an American special agent with Homeland Security Investigations said the man told officers he had picked up his load of Mexican-grown blackberries in Texas and did not witness the complete loading of the trailer.

112 kilogram packages in truck cab

An X-ray of the truck and trailer revealed four boxes: two stacked behind the driver's seat and two sitting on the sleeper bunk.

The boxes were about 41 centimetres square (16 in.), taped shut and encircled with black duct tape.

Inside, officers found 112 vacuum-sealed packages weighing about 1 kilogram each. When officers tested one of the packages, the test came back positive for cocaine.

The man was immediately arrested and detained at the border. At 9:00 p.m. the special agent informed him that he had been arrested "for the transportation of narcotics."

"I believe that there is probably cause to believe [this man] did knowingly and unlawfully possess with the intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine," the special agent stated in his affidavit.

On Monday, the man was appointed a federal defender. He was scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday.