It was just another traffic stop for Tennessee State Trooper Chris Adams – or so he thought.
But little did he know when he pulled a tractor-trailer over for tailgating that he would stumble across what turned out to be the world’s most expensive shipment of bottled water.
For hidden between the bottles were duct-wrapped bundles of cash totalling an astonishing $4.1million.
Trooper Adams stopped the tractor-trailer on Saturday morning on Interstate 40 in Tennessee’s Cumberland County.
But as he spoke to the driver something just didn’t seem right. When Trooper Adams spotted discrepancies in the trucker’s log book, he asked to search the cargo.
Perhaps surprisingly, the man gave permission. A K9 unit was called in, and the police dog alerted, so police off-loaded the entire trailer.
Inside they discovered hundreds of sealed cases of bottled water… all containing duct-taped bundles of American currency. The grand total was $4,078,713.
Federal authorities say they charged 42-year-old Armando Guzman of Monreno Valley, California, and co-driver 44-year-old Francisco Javier Cruz of San Jacinto, California, with interstate travel with intent to promote a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Commissioner Bill Gibbons of Tennessee’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security said in a statement that I-40 is one of the nation’s leading corridors for drug trafficking.
