The car had been in police use for two months when an officer cleaning it discovered $400,000 worth of cocaine carefully hidden in hydraulically controlled compartments.

"These compartments have recently been more and more popular with drug operations," said Deputy Chief Julian Bernal, commander of the narcotics division. "The difficulty with this is that because of the use of hydraulics, you normally don't have any indication that the car has been altered in any way."

And unless you know the sequence, the panel won't open, the Dallas Morning News said.