BUFFALO, N.Y. – Nearly a thousand pounds of cocaine were seized from a tractor-trailer at a Buffalo truck stop in what one agent said could be the largest cocaine bust ever seen in Western New York.
According to U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross, Canadian resident Ahmed El Kady was arrested after a days-long surveillance effort of his bobtailed semi-truck ended with officers discovering more than 850 pounds of a substance testing positive for cocaine. El Kady was arraigned on multiple charges of possession with intent to distribute.
The operation involved the input of law enforcement agencies in both the U.S. and Canada. Approximately 430 kilograms, or approximately 948 pounds, of cocaine, were seized in total.
Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Scarpino stated that this was clearly a significant amount of drugs that were meant to be distributed into the Western New York community.
The investigating special agent detailed three encounters where El Kady’s and another commercial truck were parked “in such a manner that, when opening the tractor trailer doors, it appeared to law enforcement to be an attempt to conceal their actions from potential onlookers.”
However, inspections of all three commercial trucks that El Kady met with resulted in negative tests for narcotics. El Kady arrived at a truck stop in Buffalo on Wednesday, with officers continuing to stake him out.
On Thursday morning, a white Jeep operated by a suspected accomplice picked El Kady up, with the driver making frequent stops and “driving evasively in a manner consistent with individuals conducting counter-surveillance.”
Officers kept their eyes on El Kady’s semi-truck, which was not accessed by anyone else while El Kady was in the Jeep. Sometime later, El Kady and the Jeep driver returned, and officers executed a search warrant on El Kady’s truck, revealing approximately 386 kilograms, or about 850 pounds, of a substance that tested positive for cocaine.
Scarpino said the illegal drugs that circulate the area around the northern border are smuggled by “transnational criminal organizations operating locally, nationally, and internationally.”
El Kady is set to return to court on Monday. Ross commended the diligent and excellent work of law enforcement and her office for intercepting and preventing the distribution of this poison into the community. She stressed the importance of the community’s safety with the rise in deaths from opioid poisoning.
Scarpino stated that this seizure significantly disrupted the day-to-day operations of the criminal organization and choked off a major drug pipeline of illicit narcotics into the region. He also noted that this may be the largest cocaine seizure in Western New York or even the northern border.
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