-from nbc13.com-

By Jon Paepcke

JEFFERSON COUNTY: Sheriff’s deputies make a record-breaking cocaine bust.

The bust happened Saturday on I-65 near Walker Chapel Road. Deputies seized about 265 pounds of cocaine from a tractor trailer. Authorities say it’s the largest cocaine bust ever in Jefferson County. All totaled up, Sheriff Mike Hale says the drugs are worth more than $7 million.

“This is huge,” exclaims Sheriff Hale. “I’d rate this for us this is maybe not a 10 but this is a nine and a half.”

Hale says his deputies found it hidden a secret compartment in the driver’s sleeper cab.

“The Jefferson County deputy recognized the difference and was able to look at the dimensions of the cab and recognize in fact that this was a false compartment,” says Hale.

The record bust is the county’s largest, and joins a growing list of major seizures made by the sheriff’s Highway Safety Unit. Since the group’s 2005 beginning, $20 (M) worth of drugs have been confiscated- that includes $13 (M) last year alone.

Hale says similar enforcement groups have come along way.

“Law enforcement played catchup for about five or six years,” says Hale. “Now we’re in across this country we’re in a full assault of the Mexican drug cartels that bring this stuff over.”

The county’s $7 (M) cocaine bust shatters the old record of $1.2 (M).