Border Patrol Arrests Smugglers Posing As Police

Drugs Valued At $2.6 Million

By Erik Sandoval, iReporter and Digital Content Director
POSTED: 3:35 pm PDT June 29, 2011

NILAND, Calif. -- U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Highway 111 checkpoint near Niland arrested two suspected drug smugglers who posed as police to escape detection.

Agents said the incident happened on June 2 at 7 p.m.

A canine team alerted inspectors to a blue Chevrolet Silverado which was being driven by what appeared to be correctional officers from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Agents directed the truck to a second inspection when the truck took off at a high rate of speed.

Border Patrol soon found the truck abandoned northeast of the checkpoint, where they found several abandoned bundles of narcotics.
The driver and passenger, 29 and 30, were arrested about 2 miles away from where the vehicle was found

Neither had an affiliation to the Department of Corrections.
The bundles of narcotics contained 80 pounds of cocaine and 145 pounds of marijuana, carrying an estimated street value of $2.6 million.

The suspects and the narcotics were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

http://www.kesq.com/news/28400603/detail.html