Border Patrol seizes 9 tons of pot this week
Posted: Friday, August 16, 2013 9:34 pm

U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector confiscated almost nine tons of marijuana in multiple seizures Wednesday and Thursday.

In the largest seizure, a Border Patrol K-9 detected the scent of marijuana in a tractor-trailer Wednesday night at the Falfurrias checkpoint. Upon further inspection, agents discovered more than 10,300 pounds of the drug hidden in the trailer, a Friday news release from Border Patrol stated.

Thursday at the Rio Grande City station, agents spotted a “marijuana-laden pickup truck traveling away from the Rio Grande,” the release said.

The driver pulled an abrupt U-turn when he noticed Border Patrol agents and a helicopter from CBP’s Office of Air and Marine following him. At the edge of the river, the driver and a passenger abandoned the truck and crossed into Mexico.
Agents found more than 1,500 pounds of pot inside the abandoned truck.

Additional marijuana seizures by Border Patrol agents on Wednesday and
Thursday brought the two-day total to almost 18,000 pounds – an estimated street value of $14.3 million.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector – which covers the Rio Grande Valley section of the Texas-Mexico border and stretches north along the Gulf of Mexico to Corpus Christi – have seized more than 700,000 pounds of marijuana so far in fiscal year 2013, the release said.

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_836b82cc-06e5-11e3-a1eb-001a4bcf6878.html