Three Mexican nationals were arrested on charges they tried to smuggle cocaine inside vehicle batteries after a drug bust in the Home Depot parking lot in Rosenberg Tuesday night. Juan Jose Arevalo, 40, Veronica A. Longoria, 31, and Jesus Reyes Diaz, 50, were arrested and charged with possession of cocaine with the intent to deliver after a drug bust in the parking lot of the Home Depot located at FM 762 and U.S. 59, said Jeannie Gage, spokeswoman for the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.

Gage said the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force received information of suspicious activity occurring in the parking lot of the business and started an investigation.

"While conducting visual surveillance Task Force members observed suspicious activity between several individuals at that location," said Gage. "Task Force members observed batteries being removed from working vehicles and being replaced with other batteries."

She said during the past several months, the Narcotics Task Force, through highway interdiction, has stopped vehicles concealing cocaine inside the vehicles battery. The suspects allegedly were smuggled cocaine in the vehicles by cutting the existing battery open, removing the lead cells inside and place a smaller motorcycle battery inside the existing battery to power the vehicle. The smugglers then fill the rest of the battery with cocaine.

Arevalo, Longoria and Diaz were allegedly performing a similar operation at about 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Home Depot parking when task force members approached them and found them to be in possession of several vehicle batteries.


"Investigators discovered two of the batteries had been hidden inside buckets of carpenter's joint compound," said Gage. "Upon further investigation, three batteries were found to contain approximately 17.5 kilograms of cocaine."