Canadian cocaine cowboys collared

Contributed Photo/Courtesy AZDPS: Driver Albi Naska, left, and passenger, Victor Nikitin, were both booked into Maricopa County Jail on drug transportation charges.

Troopers arrest two Canadians after more than 144 pounds of cocaine found concealed in commercial vehicle on I-8

Contributed Photo/Courtesy AZDPS: Driver Albi Naska, left, and passenger, Victor Nikitin, were both booked into Maricopa County Jail on drug transportation charges.

Contributed Article/Courtesy AZDPS

GILA BEND – On the night of Wednesday, May 18, an Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) sergeant initiated a traffic stop on a 2017 Volvo commercial motor vehicle with a commercial trailer on eastbound Interstate 8 at milepost 107, west of Gila Bend.

Contributed Photo/Courtesy DPS: Troopers located 144.6 pounds of cocaine hidden in the truck’s sleeper compartment.

During the traffic stop, the sergeant observed multiple indicators of criminal activity. Following a positive alert by an AZDPS narcotics detection canine, the sergeant located 144.6 pounds of suspected cocaine concealed in the truck’s sleeper-berth closet.

The suspect driver, 36-year-old Albi Naska, and his passenger, 36-year-old Victor Nikitin, both residents of Ontario, Canada, were arrested and booked into the Maricopa County Jail on charges including possession, transportation, and sale of a narcotic drug.