Man finds $130,000 worth of cartel heroin in used car owned by police officer

Used cars often come with surprises – squeaky brakes, unexpected rust, or previously unnoticed dents.

But one North Kentucky man was shocked to discover a $130,000 (£104,000) stash of heroin from a Mexican drugs cartel inside his 2014 Volkswagen Jetta after purchasing it in Colerain Township, WCPO Cincinnati reports.

The man made the discovery after noticing a rattling noise when driving the vehicle.

"We went out to dinner one night and the car started making a strange noise inside the passenger seat," the man said as he spoke to the station on condition of anonymity.

The man prised up the car passenger seat with a screwdriver, found a two pound (0.9 kilo) bag of heroin in a compartment and immediately went to police to hand it in.

Ohio police said the vehicle had been previously owned by a Mexican Highway Patrol officer who a cartel had threatened into transporting drugs for the gang. He was arrested after police found three kilos of heroin in the car, which was then impounded and found its way to a used car dealership.

Tim Reagan, who leads the Cincinnati Division of the DEA, said that despite thoroughly searching the vehicle complex compartment systems constructed in cartel vehicles meant drugs stashes were not always located.

A DEA report also found that, according to data from law-enforcement agencies, heroin availability was higher in 2015 than it was in 2008 in every region of the US.

Mexican cartels using methods including underground tunnels, submarines, planes, and vehicles to transport them into the country.