2:00 a.m. June 6, 2009

Border Patrol agents seized marijuana valued at $158,000 from an abandoned trailer in Boulevard and from a sport utility vehicle stopped on Interstate 15 in Temecula, officials said yesterday.

Three nylon backpacks containing 157 pounds of marijuana were found Thursday in the trailer about a mile north of the international border, said Ralph DeSio, a Border Patrol spokesman.

Agents were led to the trailer about 11:15 a.m. after a foot pursuit of three people believed to be illegal immigrants. One was apprehended and was determined to be a Mexican national. The other two fled into Mexico.

Footprints led to the trailer.

In the second seizure, a drug-detection dog called agents' attention to a Ford Bronco they had stopped about 12:20 p.m. Thursday on I-15 in Temecula. Wrapped bundles of marijuana were found in the SUV's gas tank.

A 21-year-old Mexican man who was driving the Bronco was arrested. –S.S.


Blaze guts home, starts small grass fire nearby

OCEANSIDE: A fire late Thursday gutted a two-story Oceanside house and sparked a small grass fire, officials said.

The fire was reported about 11:45 p.m. and initially was called in as a vegetation fire, but arriving crews found a home on Benet Road near Jones Road engulfed in flames, officials said.

Because the house is at the top of a steep, 600-foot driveway, only one engine could pull up next to it, and the rest of the firefighters had to hike up the hill with their equipment, Oceanside fire Battalion Chief Pete Lawrence said.

Fire crews were unable to enter the home and had to battle the blaze from the outside, Lawrence said. The second floor of the home was destroyed, and the bottom floor suffered extensive smoke and water damage, he said.

Firefighters said no residents were home. The cause of the fire is not known and remains under investigation. –K.K.


Six juniper trees set ablaze intentionally

SAN DIEGO: Six juniper trees in San Carlos were intentionally set on fire early yesterday morning, fire officials said.

The trees burned about 3 a.m. near a house at Mission Gorge Road and Golfcrest Drive.

A man walking his dog nearby saw the fire and alerted the fire department.

Firefighters extinguished the trees in about three minutes. The home was not damaged and no one was hurt, said Maurice Luque, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman.

Shortly before the trees went up in flames, a patch of brush caught fire nearby. The spot, 5 feet in diameter, burned near Gate 11 of Cowles Mountain near Golfcrest Drive and Navajo Road. The small fire was out by the time firefighters arrived, Luque said.

The cause of the spot fire is under investigation, and Luque said there was no evidence to suggest that it was linked to the tree fires. –A.M.


Sheriff's deputy resigns after admitting beating

IMPERIAL BEACH: A sheriff's deputy resigned yesterday after pleading guilty to beating his live-in girlfriend, sheriff's officials said.

Leanno Martinez, who had been on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case, submitted his resignation to the Sheriff's Department, Assistant Sheriff Bill Gore said.

Martinez, 32, was assigned to the Imperial Beach station. He was arrested in April on suspicion of assaulting a woman at his San Ysidro home.

Martinez pleaded guilty to “causing corporal injury to a . . . roommate,â€