Man arrested after authorities find cocaine hidden in his wheelchair at Logan Airport

By Sarah N. Mattero, Globe Correspondent

A man attempting to enter the country at Logan International Airport on Friday was arrested after authorities found nearly four kilograms of cocaine in the tires and frame of the wheelchair he was using, Suffolk County prosecutors said.

Emmanuelli Rojas-Moraza, 33, of Puerto Rico, was arraigned today in East Boston District Court on one count of drug trafficking. A not-guilty plea was automatically entered on his behalf, according to Jake Wark, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons set Rojas-Moraza’s bail at $45,000 cash.

Prosecutors said Rojas-Moraza was using the wheelchair for “no apparent medical purpose.”

An anomaly was allegedly found when officials at Terminal E, the international terminal, X-rayed the wheelchair. After drilling a hole in one of the chair’s tires, authorities found a white substance that field tests indicated was cocaine.

Homeland Security Investigations and US Customs and Border Protection officers requested State Police assistance.

After the wheelchair was dismantled, 3.74 kilograms of cocaine was found in blue pellets in its tires and frame, prosecutors said.

Rojas-Moraza, who was wearing a cast on one of his legs, was taken to Whidden Memorial Hospital for X-rays. A doctor there said he did not need a cast, prosecutors said.

Rojas-Moraza was given a walking cast as a medical precaution, prosecutors said.

Authorities did not know where Rojas-Moraza was coming from, Wark said.

He will return to court on Jan. 7.