Thread: Load of pot seized in banana shipment

Load of pot seized in banana shipment

By Karen Kucher, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 4:51 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — Nearly a ton of marijuana worth an estimated $1.17 million was seized Monday in a shipment of bananas at the Otay Mesa cargo facility, officials said.

A 40-year-old Mexican truck driver applied to cross into the United States from Mexico about 2 p.m. Monday carrying a cargo load of bananas. Customs and Border Protection officers off-loaded the cargo and screened it with a drug dog, which alerted to the boxes, officials said.

Officers opened them and discovered thin, square wrapped packages hidden among the bananas bunches. In all, 235 packages of pot weighing nearly 1,950 pounds were discovered.

The driver was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Last Thursday, officers found 315 packages of marijuana weighing 3,877 pounds in a shipment of peppers and green beans.

“We work hard to make sure that we facilitate the trade that’s the lifeblood of our communities and still stop those few that are trying to break the law,â€

They tried that with the shipment of bananas at the Port of Miami. The difference was that they had cocaine in them. When the run out of ways to smuggle they resort to old methods used in the past. ICE has a mini museum at the Port of Miami called the House of Pain. It has various items used to smuggle drugs in and even items with the ship name that contained lots of drugs.