State Police Seize $6 Million Cocaine Shipment

UPDATED at 2:31 p.m. Thursday

A 37-year-old Bronx man, arrested trying to pick up a crate containing 242 pound of cocaine from a delivery company’s Windsor Locks office, was ordered held on $2 million by a superior court judge in Enfield Thursday.

Edwin Olivo is charged with possession of more than one kilo of narcotics and possession with intent to sell or distribute narcotics. State police estimated the pure, uncut powder cocaine is worth about $6 million.

Olivo was arraigned Thursday and his case was transferred to the judicial district courthouse in Hartford where more serious cases are handled. His next scheduled court date is June 6.

According to an arrest report presented for probable cause in court Thursday, the Statewide Narcotics Task Force was contacted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that a suspicious package was en route from Puerto Rico. United Parcel Service representatives contacted the DEA on Tuesday evening and notified them of suspicious billing practices, odd pickup delivery times and inaccurate information that were being supplied by a particular repeat freight client.

The package was sent next day air from Puerto Rico for $594 to a James Smith, who allegedly owns a business in Plainville. UPS personnel thought the package was suspicious and contacted the owner or the business in Plainvlle with the correct name. The owner said he wasn’t expecting any freight and recently began receiving invoices for elevator parts he never ordered.

A state police dog was taken to UPS’s facility on Choice Road Windsor Locks early Wednesday. Trained to alert for narcotics and other substances, the dog alerted to the same crate several times.

According to document, state police found a wooden crate that appeared to be overly secure than normal packages. The crate had metal screws and silicon sealant in the seams of the wood. Similar crates are normally nailed together, the report says.

Investigators opened the crate and found a smaller wood crate similarly secured. In that crate they found two smaller cardboard boxes which each contained plastic wrapped bricks with a white substance that appeared to be cocaine, the report says.

The bricks were wrapped in town with a “masking agent” to try to hide the scent of the drugs, the report said. The white powder field tested positive for cocaine.

Detectives put the container and the drugs back together the way it was found, the report said. UPS officials told “James Smith” his package was ready and how much the delivery charge was, the report said. Authorities waited for him to arrive.

Olivo showed up around 10 a.m. Wednesday with a U-Haul van, several mobile phones, and a Western Union money order made out to UPS. Officers then arrested Olivo, the report said. One of the mobile phones had the number UPS was given as a contact number for “James Smith.”

Police said UPS gave the investigators information that Olivo had picked similar packages from the facility on four or five previous occasions.

5 a.m. version

A 37-year-old Bronx man faces numerous narcotics charges after being arrested Wednesday attempting to pick up a delivery of 102 kilos of cocaine, worth about $6 million, state police said.

Edwin Olivo is being held at Troop H in Hartford on $2 million and waiting arraignment in Enfield Superior Court Thursday, state police said.

On Monday, the Statewide Narcotics Task Force-North Central Office received a tip about a narcotics delivery and applied for a search and seizure warrant from a judge in Enfield Superior Court, state police said.

Detectives in the task force sup surveillance on the package from a local commercial delivery service and when Olivo took possession of the delivery, he was arrested. According to the Hartford Courant, state police would not say which service the cocaine was delivered to or why Connecticut.