Dallas police find coke in sized-and-pressed car

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7499631.stm

Drug stash found in US police car

Police in the US have uncovered cocaine with a street value of $400,000 (£200,000) - in a police car.

An undercover officer in Dallas discovered nearly 50lb (22kg) of the drug as he was cleaning the car his squad had been using for two months.

The cocaine was hidden in hydraulically controlled secret compartments.

The vehicle was seized at a crime scene earlier this year. It was put into police service after a search by the narcotics squad found nothing unusual.

"These compartments have recently been more and more popular with drug operations," Julian Bernal, deputy chief of the narcotics division, told local media.

"Because of the use of hydraulics, you normally don't have any indication that the car has been altered in any way.

"They use multiple switches and relays, and you have to know the sequence in order to make the panel open," he told the Dallas Morning News.

Second car

The vehicle was seized in March, after officers responded to a report of a violent altercation and gunshots.

They found $34,000 in cash, a set of scales and a small amount of cocaine at the address.

Police impounded the two-door 2004 Infiniti and a second car, which was later sold at auction.

Mr Bernal said police wanted to track down the buyer to check whether any drugs had been hidden in that car.

Notes:

• siezed -- straightforward meaning, siezed at crime scene
• pressed -- archaic (18^TH-19^TH century UK navy/merchant marine) practice of "pressganging"