30-year-old Elizabeth Espinoza was busted in a traffic stop, caught with $1.2 million worth of cocaine on Interstate 75 in Sumter County, Florida. The bust was in January 2020.
The Florida Highway Patrol pulled Elizabeth over due to what they say was a window tint violation on her SUV. But court files shows that her vehicle was targeted due to an ongoing drug investigation at the time.
The trooper pulls Elizabeth over and asks for her license etc. While Elizabeth is out of the vehicle being patted down, another officer moves in to let a canine perform an open air sniff around the suspect’s vehicle.
Of course the dog alerted to Elizabeth’s SUV, and officers then had probable cause to search the SUV.
During the search 26 pounds of cocaine were found, which amounted to 12 kilograms of tightly wrapped cocaine. Some of the cocaine was in the dashboard. The other kilograms of cocaine were in the back trunk area. The street value of the cocaine was worth $1.2 million.
Elizabeth’s vehicle was even taken to a auto shop where it was put on a lift so cops could search for even more hidden drugs, although no other drugs were found.
Elizabeth was arrested and charged with drug trafficking. At trial Elizabeth only got 24 months in prison.
