Outbound Vehicle Checks at Border Paying Off

Authorities seize cash, guns bound for Mexico

By Leslie Berestein, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.

SOUTH COUNTY — Last spring, U.S. officials announced a $400 million effort to tighten border security, this time with an emphasis on southbound inspections of vehicles headed into Mexico to check for contraband cash and firearms.

Since then, inspectors have made some impressive discoveries — and in addition to the money and guns, some unexpected ones.

Because of California’s relatively strict firearms laws, gun seizures have been minimal compared with discoveries made farther east, particularly in Texas, said Angelica De Cima of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which conducts the checks. However, large amounts of cash have been found.

Shortly after midnight one night in September, Border Patrol agents and customs officers discovered nearly $500,000 in cash stuffed in a duffel bag in a minivan heading south through the Otay Mesa crossing. In addition, inspectors found that the driver and his brother, who was his passenger, had more than $1,000 between them in their wallets. They were charged with felony cash smuggling and failure to declare.

There have also been odd finds, among them 50 roosters and hens being smuggled south last month, 16 of them dead, all encased in nylon hosiery and probably drugged for the trip. The chickens were stacked atop one another two to three deep, stashed inside a specially built compartment in a pickup being driven into Mexico through San Ysidro.

“They would have been sold in Mexico for rooster fights and breeding purposes,â€