A truck driver and his lead car driver were detained, questioned and released after Houston area police found $1 million in a secret compartment hidden inside the truck’s fuel tank, according to Harris County, TX, Detective Ray Daniel.

During a routine traffic stop on the Southwest Freeway, officers became suspicious when the truck’s driver and his lead car’s driver told conflicting stories that did not match the information on the truck’s trip card. Neither man was charged.

Authorities brought in Goldy, the K9 Unit drug dog from Katy, TX, who alerted authorities to the truck’s fuel tank. Inside the fuel tank, authorities found a hidden compartment filled with $1 million in cash. Daniel says these compartments are usually built in Mexico. Authorities think the money was headed for Mexico and came from drugs sold in the Houston area.

Daniel told Land Line the 1997 Kenworth truck and flatbed trailer are registered to a company called Quintanilla Trucking, but no one has contacted authorities to claim the truck. Several companies are registered with the FMCSA under the name Quintanilla; however, because the case is still under investigation, Daniel could not release the location of the trucking company that owned the vehicle.

--by René Tankersley, feature editor

René Tankersley can be reached at rene_tankersley@landlinemag.com.