Big drug bust on 9/11 not easy to forget

Although retired, he still holds a commission as a special ranger.

“I worked 28 years for the Texas Department of Public Safety. My best and, unfortunately, saddest memory came in 2001. I was a canine handler at the time, and one of the troopers had stopped a U-Haul truck on I-10. They suspected there were drugs in there so I conducted a search with my big black lab, Bama. We ended up finding 721 pounds of cocaine inside the washers, dryers and old TVs they were hauling.

“At the same time this was happening, the planes were crashing into the buildings. We heard it over the radio and knew something bad was going on. We just didn’t know the extent of it all.

“After we found all those drugs, the two guys decided they wanted to contest it and go to trial. It didn’t take the jury long. They gave them about 30 years apiece.

“During my time with the highway patrol, I helped take a lot of dope off the road and recovered a lot of money. But that’s the one I remember best because it happened on 9/11.”