Times Staff Report

A routine traffic stop for speeding and failure to use a turn signal on Interstate 65 near DeMotte has led to federal charges against an Illinois man for possessing more than 8 pounds of cocaine.

Juan Carlos Toranzo, of Lyons, Ill., had three plastic-wrapped bricks of cocaine behind an armrest in his 1996 Audi when he was pulled over for speeding by Lake County Deputy Cmdr. Oscar Martinez on Friday, court records say.

Toranzo appeared in U.S. District Court in Hammond on Tuesday to hear the charges against him.

Toranzo told Martinez he had picked up the large shipment of drugs in Chicago and was on his way to deliver it to a person he did not know in Lafayette, records say.

"Someone who is messing around with kilos is obviously involved with an organization, unless they're just a courier," said Don Rospond, head of the Northern Indiana office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.