Mexican military makes huge pot bust

By Sandra Dibble, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 23, 2010 at 1:56 p.m.

TIJUANA — Mexican soldiers at a checkpoint between Mexicali and San Felipe seized a record 34,000 pounds of marijuana hidden behind boxes of cookies in the trailer of a big rig, the military announced Tuesday.

Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, commander of Baja California’s Second Military Zone, said the seizure represents 7 million individual doses of marijuana. That quantity of Mexican marijuana has a U.S. street value between $21.6 million and $27.8 million, depending on the quality, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Duarte said the truck’s driver, Mario Lopez Castro, 34, told military authorities that he was offered 50,000 pesos, or about $3,900, to drive the truck from Mexicali to Ensenada. Lopez did not know which criminal group was paying him, Duarte said. Lopez was arrested.

The shipment was detected about 10 p.m. Sunday during a routine inspection at the Chinerito checkpoint on Federal Highway 3. The marijuana was hidden behind a stack of cookie boxes. The 1,435 marijuana packages were coated with grease and garlic and wrapped in foil to avoid detection, military authorities said.

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