Suspect Seized With $5 Million in Cocaine Being Loaded on Truck

Federal agents seized 330 pounds of cocaine Saturday, arresting a Cuban national as he was loading the drug onto a produce truck in a hotel parking lot in Commerce, authorities said.

Jose Thomas Alcorta, 39, surrendered without a struggle when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated six boxes of cocaine with an estimated street value of more than $5 million, according to DEA spokesman Ralph Lochridge.

“It’s a significant seizure,” Lochridge said.

The operation was part of a six-month-long investigation into the Medellin drug cartel that operates out of Colombia, Lochridge said. The organization moves large shipments of drugs into Mexico where they are broken down into 300- to 500-pound loads, he said.

Lochridge said that an arrest in June involving the same organization resulted in seven indictments and the seizure of 660 pounds of cocaine.

Alcorta, of Miami, was booked on suspicion of possessing drugs for distribution. He is to appear before a U.S. magistrate on Tuesday, Lochridge said. Lochridge said that the drugs would have been hard to detect concealed in an 18-wheel truck, surrounded by vegetables. The drugs were bound for the New Jersey area.