Elkhart County – Wednesday Indiana State Trooper Ted Bohner stopped a 1999 Honda Accord on the Indiana Toll Road near the 90-mile marker (State Road 19), in Elkhart.  The routine traffic stop quickly changed direction after Tpr. Bohner talked with the vehicle occupants and became suspicions of their story. 

Bohner stopped the driver of the Honda for a moving violation.  During the course of the traffic stop, Bohner became suspicious of the occupants story when they told him that they drove from Philadelphia to Merrillville, Indiana to go shopping at the mall.  Bohner called his shift partner Trooper Nicholas Meade, who is also a K-9 officer, to assist.  Meade and his K-9 partner Saber preformed an open air sniff of the vehicle.  Saber alerted on the presence of illegal drugs in the car and a search revealed what appeared to be drugs in a hidden compartment.  Bohner obtained a search warrant for the Honda and subsequently discovered six kilos of heroin hidden in an arm rest.

It is estimated that the heroin has a street value of more than $300,000 dollars.  Bohner also located and confiscated nearly $5,000 dollars in cash.

The driver, Lafaithia Dawkins, 56, and her daughter, Kia Williams, 22, who was also a passenger, are both from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  They were both placed under arrest and are facing multiple drug charges of trafficking and dealing.  They are being held at the Elkhart County Jail awaiting a bond hearing.

Persons arrested are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.