In what seemed like a good scene from an old classic movie, French police have recently uncovered a drug operation that was using old cars to smuggle cocaine out of the country! Were it not for an anonymous tip, French police would have never found anything unusual with a 1947 Chevrolet Stylemaster Sedan.
Drug dogs had sniffed up and down the old car previously and found nothing. The 61.6 pounds of cocaine had been carefully tucked inside the frame rails of the 47′ Chevy. "Drug dogs couldn’t detect anything" when passing by the vehicle, said Claude Catto, head of the interregional judicial police in Lyon.
Loaded into a large shipping container, the car and its secret cargo had already passed undetected through ports in Chile, Spain, Fos-sur-Mer, France and finally Lyon. Customs documents revealed that the container and the car originated from Bolivia. Mr. Catto told reporters that it required eight hours for police to strip the car and locate the cocaine. The Chevrolet had to be completely taken apart, every single nut, bolt and body panel was removed.
According to police estimates, the cocaine is 90 percent pure and has a street value estimated at 2 million euros, or roughly $2.86 million. The ’47 Chevrolet two-door sedan, in case you were wondering, would only cost between $4,000 to $8,000 for a decent running example. Seems that drug dealers are getting more and more aware that cars are a great place to hide drugs. Collector cars are shipped worldwide and are hard to keep track of since they are most times handled through a third party company and wealthy owners sometimes choose to be anonymous.
