Thread: CBP: Huge drug bust at Santa Teresa port of entry Thursday

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11416543

CBP: Huge drug bust at Santa Teresa port of entry Thursday
Candi M. Lopez / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/09/2009 01:25:21 PM MST


EL PASO -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials Friday reported seizing more than a ton of marijuana, the largest drug bust made in more than six years, at the Santa Teresa port of entry Thursday.
According to a CBP news release, field operations officers seized 2,192 pounds of marijuana just after 10 a.m. Thursday. In July of 2002, officers seized 2,234 pounds of marijuana at the same port.

After noting irregularities in the empty refrigerated trailer Thursday, the rig was submitted to an intensive gamma ray scan, where further abnormalities were detected, according to officials. Officers then drilled into the floor and extracted a green substance which tested positive for marijuana.

The driver, 24-year-old Jesus Alfonso Jaquez Munoz of Ascension, Chihuahua, was arrested after officers removed 530 drug-filled packages from the floor compartment of a 1992 GMC tractor trailer, officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents took Munoz into custody and secured federal prosecution in connection with the failed smuggling attempt, according to the news release.

Truck Yields 530 Marijuana Bundles

POSTED: 1:08 pm MST January 9, 2009
UPDATED: 3:43 pm MST January 9, 2009

SANTA TERESA, N.M. -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seize 2,234 pounds of marijuana from a refrigerated tractor-trailer truck at the Santa Teresa port of entry in New Mexico.

It was their biggest drug bust in six years.

The seizure was made just after 10 a.m. Thursday when the vehicle entered the commercial cargo facility from Mexico. An officer working at the primary inspection booth detected a number of irregularities in the shipment and selected the rig for an intensive gamma ray scan, CBP said.

During the scan, another officer noted something strange in the appearance of the floor of the trailer. Officers said they drilled into the floor and pulled out a green substance, which tested positive for marijuana.

Officers continued their exam and said they discovered that the entire floor had been filled with marijuana-filled bundles. They removed a total of 530 packages of marijuana from the floor compartment.

Officers arrested the driver of the vehicle, Jesus Alonso Jaquez Munoz, 24, of Ascension, Chihuahua, Mexico.
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