A Yonkers man is headed for a likely long stretch in state prison after pleading guilty Thursday to hauling a massive load of cocaine up Interstate 87, prosecutors said. State troopers, acting on a tip from federal agents, pulled over his car on the busy Westchester stretch of the highway and wound up seizing more than 40 kilograms of cocaine from inside the vehicle, a haul that instantly turned a routine stop into a headline case.
Guilty plea follows massive seizure
Prosecutors identified the driver as 50-year-old Elvin Caballero Diaz, who admitted in court that he possessed the cocaine and pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. The plea was entered Thursday in Westchester County Court, according to reporting by The Journal News/lohud.
How the stop unfolded
The traffic stop that set everything in motion happened on Oct. 27, when a state trooper pulled Diaz over at Exit 4 on I-87 after spotting a dirty license plate and what officers described as an unsafe lane change. Court documents say Diaz consented to a search of the vehicle, and troopers then found vacuum-packed bricks that were later confirmed to be cocaine. The case first surfaced publicly after a December arraignment in which Diaz pleaded not guilty, as reported by NY Daily Record.
Legal fallout
Diaz now stands convicted of first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, the highest-level felony under New York state drug laws, a charge that can put defendants behind bars for decades. Prosecutors say the more than 40 kilograms seized in the car puts the case in the statute's toughest sentencing bracket. A sentencing date has not yet been set, according to The Journal News/lohud.
