Thread: 7 charged with smuggling after 9 tons of pot are seized

Seven charged with smuggling after 9 tons of pot are seized

November 25, 2011 | 7:04pm

Seven men from San Diego and Tijuana have been charged in U.S. federal court with drug smuggling after authorities discovered 9 tons of marijuana inside a tractor-trailer at the Otay Mesa border crossing, officials said Friday.

The estimated value of the marijuana was put at $13 million.

The discovery occurred Tuesday when an X-ray search showed the trailer packed with bricks of marijuana, officials said. Federal agents followed the truck to a junkyard on the U.S. side of the border where the seven suspects were arrested.

Five of the seven are listed as being from Tijuana, two from San Diego County.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... to-us.html

$13 million of pot in truck; seven 7 arrested

Seven people were arrested this week shortly after a tractor-trailer under surveillance passed through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry with marijuana that federal officials said was valued at more than $13 million.

The defendants — five from Tijuana, one from San Diego and one from Chula Vista — appeared in federal court Wednesday, Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday. They are charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

According to a federal complaint, the truck, with an attached trailer, entered the port about noon on Tuesday. An X-ray inspection by Customs and Border Protection showed bricks of marijuana in the trailer, Mack said. Department of Homeland Security agents released the shipment and maintained constant surveillance.

About 2 p.m., the driver of the truck backed up to a white box truck at a vehicle towing and storage lot in Otay Mesa. Agents entered the lot about 20 minutes later and arrested the seven suspects. They found 1,146 packages of marijuana in the box truck weighing about nine tons, the complaint said.

All seven defendants said later that they were paid between $500 and $1,000 each to unload the marijuana and reload it into the box truck, the complaint said.

The defendants were identified as Cristian Bajoner, 20, of San Diego; Jonathan Peinado, 19, of Chula Vista; and from Tijuana, Victor Hernandez, 29; Francisco Javier Peinado, 47; Heriberto Peinado-Covarrubias, 45; Dahir Alan Peinado-Leyva, 19; and Jorge Manuel Zamora-Ponce, 21.

They were all booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... -arrested/