Thread: 10 tons of marijuana seized at Arizona border

Feds: 10 tons of marijuana seized at Arizona border

AP8:55 a.m. EST November 19, 2013

NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) — Federal officials are reporting a record seizure of marijuana at an Arizona crossing on the U.S.-Mexico border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have scheduled a Tuesday afternoon news conference to provide details on the seizure of more than 10 tons of marijuana at the Mariposa port of entry on the outskirts of Nogales.

That busy crossing point is used by commercial traffic, including trucks hauling Mexican produce into the United States.

According to the CPB, the seizure surpasses the previous record seizure in Arizona of 14,121 pounds, or slightly over 7 tons, of marijuana on Jan. 15.

The agency says the seized marijuana is valued at more than $10.1 million.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...order/3637687/

Trucker with record pot load said he was threatened


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Nogales International | Posted 11 hours ago
A trucker who was busted at the Mariposa Port of Entry with a record-setting marijuana load this month told authorities that his truck was loaded at a warehouse about 50 miles south of Douglas, and that he was forced to transport the drugs after his family was threatened.


Pedro Corona-Moreno, 32, of Hermosillo, Sonora was caught with the $10-million, 20,000-pound pot load on Nov. 13. According to a criminal complaint filed the next day at U.S. District Court in Tucson, he agreed to talk to investigators after they read him his Miranda rights.


He reportedly said that he works for a man who owns a company called T Bay in Esqueda, Sonora, about 50 miles south of Douglas. According to the complaint, the truck Corona was driving at the time of his arrest was registered to the owner of T Bay.


Corona said he arrived in Esqueda with the truck and trailer, and took it to a produce warehouse to load it with squash. He initially said he backed the truck into the warehouse where cold produce is stored and allowed it to be loaded, but was not allowed in the room where the cold produce is loaded and therefore did not see what was loaded into the trailer.


However, he subsequently changed his story and allegedly said he was forced to transport the pot after someone threatened his family.


Either way, he arrived at the Mariposa Commercial Facility at about 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 and declared that he was importing a load of squash, according to the complaint.


“Corona-Moreno appeared nervous and was repeatedly shaking the stick shift of the truck in a nervous fashion,” the complaint says.


A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer then sent him and his truck to an X-ray exam area, where “anomalies were detected within the commodity.”


An officer broke the seal of the truck, and a drug-sniffing dog alerted to the contents.
“During offload, six legitimate pallets of squash were located. The remainder of the trailer was loaded with large bins containing bales of marijuana,” according to the complaint.


In all, 882 bales of marijuana weighing a total of 20,335 pounds were pulled from the bins.

http://m.nogalesinternational.com/ne....html?mode=jqm