posted September 6, 2008
Two men are facing federal charges after illegal drugs were found in a compartment in their vehicle while they were passing through Chattanooga.
Basilio Jimenez and Johnny Espinal-Bisono were stopped on Aug. 27 by City Police Officer Dale Lockhart.
He said he saw a Chrysler Pacifica following within three feet of a Federal Express truck eastbound on I-24.
Officer Lockhart said, after stopping the vehicle, he noticed that the passenger, Espinal-Bisono, was visibly nervous.
Jiminez said he was coming from Atlanta, where he had gone to visit a friend. He said when he got to Atlanta he found he had forgotten the friend's phone number so they were now headed to Nashville to visit another friend.
He denied there were any narcotics in the car and allowed a search of the vehicle.
Officer Lockhart said he and Sgt. Jason Lewis noticed a strong odor of fresh paint and saw that the undercarriage had been freshly painted. Officer Lockhart also noted tool marks on bolts in the rear passenger area.
He said he knew that painting the undercarriage is often done to cover tool marks and other irregularities that are created when trap doors are built into vehicles.
The officers spotted two non-factory issue compartment doors concealed in the floor panels. They opened the compartment and found six kilograms of cocaine hidden inside.
Jimenez was asked who owned the car. He said it belonged to a friend. When asked the friend's name, Jimenez asked Espinal-Bisono who said he did not know.
The officers found a receipt from a Hampton Inn motel in Meridian, Miss., in the name of Espinal-Bisono for Aug. 24. Espinal-Bisono said they had been in Houston recently.
The two men were then taken into custody. Both are citizens of the Dominican Republic.
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