Thread: Trucks loaded with marijuana busted east of Nogales

Published: 11.07.2007

Trucks loaded with marijuana busted east of Nogales
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Three trucks carrying about 3,900 pounds of marijuana were intercepted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents east of Nogales this week.
The trucks were spotted leaving the Kino Springs area at high speeds about 4 p.m., said Vincent Picard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. The drivers flipped around and headed back toward the border once they realized they were being followed by agents, he said.
Vehicle spikes were used to stop the trucks, which were reported stolen out of the Phoenix area. One of the drivers, Gabriel Noriega-Llanez, 21, of Mexico, was arrested, Picard said. Two others ran back in to Mexico.
Officials took the marijuana to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection vault at the Mariposa port of entry in Nogales where it tipped the scales at 3,968 pounds, or nearly two tons. The marijuana has has an estimated value of $2.281 million, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were working in the border area as part of an ongoing investigation, Picard said. They had received a tip that there was smuggling going on there.
The Santa Cruz County Task Force and the Border Patrol helped during the incident, Picard said.
Noriega-Llanez was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and is scheduled to appear Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson for a detention hearing, Picard said.
Arizona's stretch of U.S.-Mexican border has become ground zero for marijuana smuggling and the Kino Springs area is one of the areas frequently used by smugglers. In the recently-completed fiscal year 2007, federal, state and local law enforcement officers in Arizona seized a record 1.26 million pounds of marijuana in 5,016 cases, figures from the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, show. That's 42 percent of all marijuana seized along the southwest border.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/210480

Good place for a fence.

Dixie