Salina ? A speeding stop west of Salina during the weekend led to the seizure of 240 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $4.4 million, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

The size of the seizure ranks it among the top 10 or 15 in patrol history, said Lt. Kirk Simone, who is based at the patrol’s headquarters in Topeka.

Trooper Craig Davis, of Salina, made the stop on Interstate 70 about 6:25 a.m. Sunday. He said he became suspicious, asked to search the vehicle and was given permission. He said he found the cocaine in two duffel bags in the extended cab portion of the pickup truck. The bags, he said, were in plain view and not concealed.

Davis took custody of the two occupants, a 53-year-old woman and 21-year-old man from Albuquerque, N.M. The Saline County prosecutor’s office said it was in the process of preparing charges, which it expected to file later on Monday.

Davis said it was expected the case will be turned over to federal prosecutors.

The trooper wouldn’t say precisely how fast the truck was going, saying only, “Take my word for it, they were speeding.”

The trooper said the two people were cooperative and “didn’t really say a lot.”

“It made my day, that’s for sure,” Davis said. “It didn’t make theirs, but it made mine.”

Simone said the patrol’s largest cocaine seizure was one of 472 pounds in 1994, and the next year there was a 441-pound seizure and another of 367 pounds.