Most grandmas get pulled over for driving too slow. But not Cheryl Cheatham. The 63-year-old Arizona resident was pulled over for living too fast.

Cheatham was arrested this month for allegedly smuggling about $500,000 in cocaine in two suitcases from Las Vegas to Detroit.

Photo Credit: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office; Cheatham in 2013
Photo Credit: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office; Cheatham in 2013

Cheatham was followed by DEA Task Force officers at Detroit’s Metro Airport after “officers observed her to look at several pieces of luggage on the carousel, specifically at the luggage tags, as if she did not own the luggage for a very long period of time,” according to court documents. “Cheatham was followed on foot to the Metro Car stand at the Metro Airport, where she waited for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, before turning around, walking to the departure area, pausing to make sure she was not followed, and entering a taxi cab, which was parked in the departure area of the airport.”

She was arrested three hours later in Detroit after officials caught her attempting to deliver the cocaine. A State Trooper, in coordination with federal agents, conducted the traffic stop, and the drugs were swiftly sniffed out by Otto, a police K-9.

One bundle of cocaine contained eight individually wrapped kilograms of suspected cocaine, and the second bundle contained… (continue reading)