Traffic stop leads to $4 million drug bust in Bucks County

BEDMINSTER TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- What was seemingly a routine traffic stop in Bedminster Township, Bucks County led to a multi-million dollar drug seizure.

Officials said on January 29, around 11:30 p.m., police noticed a Jeep being driven all over the place around Dublin Pike.

When they pulled the vehicle over they found drugs and cash.

Behind the wheel were 28-year-old Christian Ochoa and 27-year-old Edith Cardenas. Both have been arrested for intent to sell the drugs.

Police linked the two to a tractor-trailer driven from California to Allentown, Lehigh County, where they found 10 kilograms of heroin/fentanyl with a street value of around $3 million.

They also found nine kilograms of cocaine or fentanyl with a street value upwards of $900,000, along with other drugs, cell phones and a gun.

Officials said the total street value in both seizures is around $4 million or more.

Also recovered in the truck: candles of Jesús Malverde, the patron saint of drug traffickers.

Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said this proves we are in the midst of a twin pandemic between COVID-19 and drug addiction.

"What I will condemn are the drug traffickers that are taking advantage of this second deadly pandemic," said Weintraub.

Action News spoke with former drug addicts who said the pandemic has made hiding an addiction easier, now that more are working from home.

"My experience: it was the most important thing to me to get my next fix. I would do whatever it took to get it, any amount of money," said Joseph Guglielmi, a former drug addict, now board member Livengrin Foundation.

"You don't care if you're going to die, you don't care of the after effect, all you care is getting that drug," said Wendell Alston, a former drug addict, now assistant director for Self Help Movement.