RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. — A large-scale drug trafficking operation came to a halt after a Rankin County jury convicted a Texas man caught transporting a massive quantity of cocaine along Interstate 20.
Jorge Rodriguez, 36, of El Paso, Texas, has been sentenced to prison following his conviction for trafficking cocaine. The arrest stemmed from a traffic stop conducted by the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Interdiction Unit. Deputies became suspicious during the stop and deployed a K-9 unit to inspect the vehicle.
The K-9 alerted officers to the presence of narcotics in the trunk area. Upon further inspection, deputies discovered approximately 12 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside a tire that did not belong to the vehicle Rodriguez was driving. Authorities said the drugs had been carefully hidden to avoid detection, indicating a coordinated trafficking effort rather than a random or isolated incident…