Woman used crawfish to mask the smell of drugs before MS Coast stop nets 22-pound seizure
A North Carolina woman found with 22 pounds of cocaine valued at over $350,000 tried to use crawfish to cover up the smell of drugs in her rental car when Harrison County sheriff’s deputies arrested her on a federal drug distribution charge, according to court records.
On Monday, Sherika Yuva Leake, 38, of Winston-Salem, N.C., pleaded guilty to a federal drug offense that first resulted in her arrest in July following a traffic stop on Interstate 10.
She is facing a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines at her sentencing in April.
Harrison County sheriff’s deputies stopped Leake on Interstate 10 on July 29 after she slowed down traffic when she spotted a law enforcement vehicle nearby, the records say.
A sheriff’s deputy stopped her in a 2022 Dodge Caravan she had rented. Once the stop happened, a deputy smelled marijuana and crawfish in the vehicle.
Leake told authorities she worked at a trucking company and had just traveled to Louisiana to buy some crawfish after allegedly going to Texas for her job. She said she was on her way back to North Carolina.
The deputy asked Leake if she was trying to use the crawfish to mask the smell of drugs in the car. She denied the allegations.
The deputy noticed Leake’s hands shaking when she handed over her license and other documentation, leading him to find probable cause for the search.
Drug agents later did an extensive search of her vehicle and found approximately 22 pounds of powder cocaine, or 10 kilogram-sized bundles of cocaine, in the bag in the trunk of the car, the records say. Mixed in the bag with the bundles of cocaine were some of Leake’s belongings, authorities said.
Authorities subsequently determined that Leake had driven the rental car from North Carolina to Texas to pick up the cocaine. According to the criminal complaint, Leake had prior arrests for drug and weapons charges.
The Harrison County Sheriff’s Department and the DEA investigated the case.
