Border Patrol seizes $4.6 million in marijuana

07:07 PM MST on Tuesday, June 3, 2008

By Jim Edwards, Fox 11 News

Five significant drug seizures were made the weekend of May 31-June 1 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents from the Tucson Sector.



The largest of the marijuana seizures took place on Saturday afternoon when two vehicles were spotted traveling in tandem near the village of Vamori on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. The occupants of the vehicles fled into the desert when they realized that a CBP air unit had spotted them. Agents on the ground arrested one of the suspects and discovered bundles of marijuana weighing almost one ton in one of the vehicles.


A second marijuana seizure happened when agents noticed a vehicle that was attempting to drive around a Border Patrol checkpoint on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. When agents approached, the vehicle made a U-turn and headed south. Agents later came upon the abandoned vehicle containing 55 bundles of marijuana weighing 1,200 pounds.


The five marijuana seizures accounted for 5,700 pounds of pot with a street value of $4.6 million.

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