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.