State trooper finds 1,000 stamp bags of heroin in hidden compartment during traffic stop

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — A Pennsylvania state trooper said he found $250,000 worth of heroin and nearly that much in cash during a traffic stop.

State police pulled over Salvador Lucena-Rosa, 47, of Mt. Bethel, on Route 22 in Derry Township around 1:45 p.m. Thursday for tailgating.

When police asked Lucena-Rosa where he was headed, he said he was visiting a friend for a job at a hotel in Jefferson Hills. But police didn't think the story added up.

“This was a trooper that has an extreme amount of education and experience when it comes to recognizing people that are muling and transporting large quantities,” said Trooper Steve Limani, public information officer for Pennsylvania State Police in Greensburg.

Police said Lucena-Rosa was extremely cooperative and even let them search the SUV, leading them to one of their biggest heroin busts in recent years.

The trooper found $237,000 in cash and 1,000 stamp bags of heroin hidden in a secret compartment that was hot-wired into the suspect’s SUV, police said.

"And when he activated these wires, he was able to find (that) indeed, his suspicions were right,"  Limani said. "You can be a passenger in this vehicle and you'd never you're sitting on top of a quarter of a million dollars and 1,000 stamp bags of heroin."

“(The drug dealers) are willing to put the time in to protect their product. It's our job to get their product off the street and protect our community and children dying from this on a daily basis."

Lucena-Rosa was taken into custody at the scene.

Cox Media Group