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Federal authorities have arrested an accused drug-runner they say tried to transport a bag of cocaine smuggled from Jamaica into the Port of New Orleans.
Brookton Grierson was booked on conspiracy to import cocaine, according to court documents.
Agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security received a tip that a delivery of cocaine would be made through the port on July 8 and notified the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office. A deputy with that agency, patrolling near the Wal-Mart in LaPlace, said he pulled Grierson over after he ran a stop sign.
Grierson appeared nervous, according to court documents, and declined to allow the deputy to search his rental car. A K-9 unit was called, and the dog detected an illicit substance around a backpack on the floorboard of the vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
Inside, investigators said, they found two bundles of cocaine wrapped in plastic.
Grierson told authorities that he had been paid $1,000 to meet a man named Pako in LaPlace, pick up the drugs and drive them to Florida. He said Pako worked on a ship carrying bauxite into the port and that the cocaine had come from a man in Jamaica named Trevor.