Two Instagram influencers are facing federal drug trafficking charges after police allegedly found $3 million worth of cocaine hidden in secret compartments of their vehicle, KTLA-TV reports.
On June 1, a Mobile County Sheriff’s deputy pulled over a black Ford Expedition on Interstate 110 near Mobile, Alabama, for an alleged traffic violation.
After the vehicle occupants gave conflicting stories about their travel plans, a K-9 unit alerted that drugs might be in the SUV, so officers conducted a search, according to WPMI-TV. They found 84 bundles of cocaine – 216 pounds in total.
The vehicle had been structurally modified to conceal the drugs, according to an affidavit filed in court by a federal law enforcement agent. “The vehicle was modified in the back seat with a steel aftermarket compartment,” the affidavit reads.
“The floor was lowered and welded back together giving room to store the bundles of cocaine. The second compartment was located in the back side area of the SUV where the side panels were hollowed out giving more room to store the bricks of cocaine.”
Officers arrested the driver, 36-year-old Melissa Dufour, a fitness guru who has 10,000 Instagram followers, and passenger 34-year-old Racquelle Marie Dolores Anteola, who is known by the alias Rahky to her 118,000 Instagram followers.
Dufour, of Miramar, Florida, sells clothing under the brand Sexy Sweats, while Anteola is a Los Angeles-based singer and rapper. The pair told police that they started a road trip together in Miami, got “very drunk” at a party in Houston, and then began driving to Atlanta.
Dufour claimed that her boyfriend of one month had provided her with the SUV to use on the trip. She allegedly had a lawyer on the phone just prior to the search who said he would be requesting “dash camera footage as well as training records for the canine and names and badge numbers for the officers on the scene,” according to the affidavit.
Sheriff’s deputies and the U.S. Border Patrol took the women into custody. The pair are each facing a charge of possession with intent to distribute drugs, according to federal court records reviewed by Crime Online.
Commenters on the duo’s Instagram pages expressed disbelief about the amount of cocaine they allegedly were carrying.
“If that was 10 or 20 lbs, I’d be like ‘wow that’s crazy’ but 200 F–ING LBS ????” one user wrote on Anteola’s Instagram page.
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[Feature Photo: Melissa Dufour and Racquelle Marie Dolores Anteola/Mobile County Sheriff’s Office]
