Drug seizures at ports valued at $3.2 million

By Kristina Davis, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 4:52 p.m.

OTAY MESA — Border officers disrupted numerous smuggling attempts from Mexico Thursday, seizing 5,000 pounds of drugs valued at $3.2 million found hidden in trucks at the county’s various ports of entry.

In addition to large amounts of marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin also were discovered.

The largest seizure occurred about 6:15 p.m. at the Otay Mesa cargo facility when a 46-year-old Ensenada man drove through in a tractor-trailer carrying peppers and green beans. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched the cargo and discovered 315 large packages of marijuana, weighing nearly 3,900 pounds, officials said.

Officers at the Tecate Port of Entry, with the help of a drug-sniffing dog, found 769 pounds of marijuana in a semi-truck loaded with pebbles about 4:30 p.m. The driver, a 25-year-old Tecate man, was arrested.

At the San Ysidro Port of Entry, a 37-year-old Temecula man driving a Dodge pickup tried to enter into the United States about 2:20 p.m. when a drug dog alerted to suspicious cargo. Officers found a secret compartment six inches above the original truck bed, where they extracted 48 bundles of pot weighing 297 pounds.

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