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Lafaithia Dawkins, 56, and her daughter, Kia Williams, 22 were arrested on Indiana Toll Road near Elkhart after six kilos of heroin found in car during routine traffic stop (Photo courtesy of Indiana State Police) (July 12, 2012) |
ELKHART COUNTY – A routine traffic stop on the Indiana Toll Road didn’t quite end the way the people in the car or State Police expected.
Trooper Ted Bohner Wednesday stopped a 1999 Honda Accord near the 90-mile marker in Elkhart. The traffic stop quickly changed direction after Tpr. Bohner talked with the driver and passenger.
The car was stopped for a moving violation. However, during the course of the traffic stop, Bohner became suspicious of the occupants’ story when they told him they drove from Philadelphia to Merrillville to go shopping at the mall.
Bohner called his shift partner, a K-9 officer, for help. Trooper Nicholas Meade and his K-9 partner Saber performed an open air sniff of the car.
Saber found six kilos of heroin in a hidden compartment. The illegal drugs have a street value of more than $300,000. Police also confiscated $5,000 in cash.
The driver, 56-year-old Lafaithia Dawkins, and her daughter, 22-year-old Kia Williams, who was the passenger in the car, are both from Philadelphia. They were both arrested and face multiple drug charges of trafficking and dealing.
Mother and daughter are being held at the Elkhart County Jail waiting for a bond hearing.
