Thread: 1,300 pounds of pot seized ; driver held

1,300 pounds of pot seized; driver held
Border agents make arrest after pursuit of SUV
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.29.2008
U.S. Border Patrol agents recovered 1,300 pounds of marijuana and arrested the driver of a sport utility vehicle they were pursuing after it was driven across the border east of Douglas early Wednesday morning.
At about 5:30 a.m., agents patrolling on a hill spotted a green Chevy Tahoe cross the U.S.-Mexico border and head west toward Douglas on Geronimo Trail, a heavily-used drug- and people-smuggling road that runs parallel to the international line east of Douglas, said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
They alerted other agents in the area who attempted to stop the vehicle before it reached Douglas. But the driver failed to stop and kept going. The agents turned on their lights and sirens and began pursuing, Scioli said.
Other agents put down tire spikes farther ahead on the road, and the Tahoe ran over them, flattening all four tires. The driver, a 35-year-old man from Mexico with an extensive drug-related criminal history, fled from the vehicle.
Agents chased him on foot and caught him nearby. He is in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, with charges pending after an interview. He has been formally deported from the United States several times, Scioli said.
Agents found 61 bundles of marijuana inside the Tahoe, marijuana that weighed a total of 1,300 pounds.
The Tahoe had been painted green to resemble a vehicle owned and used by a local rancher, Scioli said.
Painting and rigging up vehicles to resemble those of local ranchers is a common tactic used by drug smugglers, he said.
In a recent example, smugglers changed all the manufacturer's labels on a GMC pickup to Chevrolet and bought bumper stickers that were identical to the ones used on a rancher's Chevy pickup, Scioli said.
Through the first seven months of fiscal year 2008, Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector had seized 519,880 pounds of marijuana, an 8 percent decrease from the same period the previous fiscal year, Border Patrol statistics show.
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I need to forward this to Obama and McAmnesty.....