Tourist Caught Smuggling Cocaine Disguised as Coca-Cola at NC Airport

A tourist traveling through Raleigh-Durham International Airport was arrested Saturday after federal screening agents discovered a suitcase packed with cocaine disguised inside packaging bearing Coca-Cola labels, according to authorities.

The arrest, made at RDU in Morrisville, marks another in a steady stream of drug interdictions at the airport that serves Wake County and the wider Triangle region. The concealment method, hiding narcotics within familiar consumer beverage branding, is a known trafficking tactic dating back to the Colombian cartels of the 1980s, and one that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has flagged at southeast airports, including RDU, in prior cases involving cocaine packed into food and drink containers.

Transportation Security Administration officers do not make arrests and carry no law enforcement authority, but they are the first line of detection at airport checkpoints. When TSA screening flags a bag, either through X-ray imaging, physical inspection, or a canine alert, agents refer the traveler to law enforcement. At RDU, the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority Police Department, a fully accredited North Carolina law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over all 5,000 acres of airport property, takes custody and makes the arrest. In past cocaine cases at RDU, courts have set bonds as high as $3 million secured.

North Carolina classifies cocaine trafficking as a felony, with mandatory minimum sentences that escalate sharply with the weight of the drug. A conviction on trafficking charges involving 28 grams or more carries a minimum four-year active sentence under state law, with penalties increasing at the 200-gram and 400-gram thresholds.

The identity of the tourist has not been publicly released as of Saturday. No bond amount or court date has been announced. The RDU Police Department and the TSA had not issued public statements as of publication.