On July 22 at approximately 11:45 p.m., Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Highway Interdiction Unit stopped a tractor trailer traveling west on I-20 near Leeds. During the stop, 71 kilos of cocaine were discovered.

The driver of the truck, 35 year old Lizando Suarez of Houston, Texas, and the passenger, 46 year old Antonio Sigala of Baytown, Texas were both unwilling to cooperate and were placed in the Jefferson County Jail for trafficking cocaine with a $1 million bond each.

“We had hoped to get cooperation from these two suspects and get to the heart of the real players in this cocaine trafficking,” said Sheriff Mike Hale. “This is a significant amount that was headed for the streets somewhere. As usual the mules would rather go to prison than face consequences from a drug cartel. At least we hurt someone to the tune of almost a million dollars. We will have to be satisfied with that for now.”