Nearly 350 pounds of cocaine worth about $5 million was seized from a hidden compartment in a big rig, Riverside County prosecutors announced Thursday.

The drug seizure occurred during a police traffic stop about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in Norco, according to the district attorney’s office.

A police dog led authorities to 156 brick-sized parcels of cocaine stored behind a fake compartment wall in the trailer of a truck stopped near 6th Street and the 15 Freeway, prosecutors said.

Investigators arrested the big rig’s driver, Samer Karanouh, a 44-year-old Canadian national, who is being held in lieu of $1-million bail in a county jail, prosecutors said.


The drug sting arose from an investigation by federal and local authorities into trafficking by Mexican cartels into the U.S., according to the district attorney’s office.

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