A traffic stop near Valley Boulevard and the 710 Freeway turned into one of Alhambra's biggest drug busts this year after a police K-9 named Otis alerted officers to boxes packed with cocaine inside an SUV. Police said the dog's nose uncovered more than 400 pounds of the drug, and the driver was arrested on the spot.
A Shifting Story About the Boxes
The Alhambra Police Department announced that K-9 Otis assisted officers in discovering over 400 pounds of cocaine being illegally transported by a single driver, according to KTLA. Officers conducted the traffic stop in the area of Valley Boulevard near the 710 Freeway, though the reasons for pulling the driver over were not immediately disclosed. When questioned about the boxes filling his vehicle, the driver first claimed he was heading home to Huntington Park from his cousin's house and insisted the boxes did not belong to him.
His story soon changed. The driver later told officers he was actually transporting diesel parts to a shop owned by his friend, per the same account relayed by police. That shift in explanation came as Otis and his handler arrived at the scene and the dog alerted officers to the vehicle, setting off the search that would reveal what was really packed inside.
Nearly 200 Kilos Found Inside the SUV
Once officers searched the SUV, they found it filled with cocaine weighing about 200 kilos, or roughly 440 pounds, per the police account. Officers arrested the driver and booked him at the Alhambra Police Department Jail, the report notes. The department later celebrated the seizure publicly, writing that “a round of a-paws for our good boy, K9 Otis” was in order, and adding that “then came the nose that knows” in describing how the dog zeroed in on the hidden narcotics.
How This Bust Compares to Past SoCal Seizures
Large-scale cocaine seizures tied to canine units are not unheard of in the San Gabriel Valley. In October 2022, an Arcadia Police Department K-9 unit named Kruz found 80 kilograms of cocaine during a traffic stop while assisting another law enforcement agency, a haul KTLA reported carried an approximate street value of $25 million at the time. The Alhambra seizure, at roughly 200 kilograms, is more than double that amount in weight.
Alhambra has also seen federal cocaine cases before. The United States Department of Justice said a Canadian national was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison for distributing hundreds of pounds of cocaine out of stash houses in the city, underscoring that the area has repeatedly turned up as a waypoint for large narcotics shipments moving through the region.
