Nogales pot bust biggest in 2 years

Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.04.2007

U.S. Customs and Border Protection scored its biggest drug bust in at least two years in Nogales Saturday evening when they found more than 3 tons of marijuana hidden inside a refrigerated trailer full of tomatoes at the Mariposa port of entry.
Just before 5 p.m. on Saturday, members of the anti-terrorism contraband enforcement team were screening commercial tractor-trailers coming in from Mexico when a 2006 Kenworth T-300 driven by a 31-year-old Mexican man from Nogales, Sonora, came through, said Brian Levin, Customs and Border Protection spokesman.
A narcotics dog alerted officers to an odor coming from the trailer and the port's truck X-ray system revealed abnormalities in the load of tomatoes, Levin said. Officers removed the pallets and discovered 267 bales of marijuana weighing 6,160 pounds; which has estimated value of $6.16 million, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center.
Officers arrested the driver and turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation. They seized the tractor, trailer and drugs, Levin said. The tomatoes were loaded into a different tractor-trailer and allowed to continue into the United States, he said.
The most recent drug seizure of such magnitude occurred on May 8 when the same officers seized 3,862 pounds of marijuana hidden inside a tractor-trailer carrying squash, Levin said.
Since Oct. 1, Customs and Border Protections have stopped 154 attempts to smuggle marijuana into the country at the two ports of entry in Nogales, seizing more than 30,500 pounds; a 56-percent from the same time period last year, Levin said.

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