Aug. 14, 2007, 6:04PM
Border officials seize drugs worth $12 million


© 2007 The Associated Press


HIDALGO, Texas — Federal agents have seized more than $12 million worth of drugs in three separate stops near the Texas-Mexico border.

A 47-year-old Dallas man was arrested after Customs officers found close to 30 pounds of heroin and 11 pounds of cocaine hidden in the vehicle he was driving over the border from Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday.

Glasford Adolfo Barnaby-Gill was arrested Monday morning after officers detected something odd in the gas tank of Barnaby-Gill's sport utility vehicle and a drug sniffing dog alerted to the scent of narcotics.

X-Ray imagery helped the officials locate two metal cylinders in the gas tank that contained 23 packages of brown heroin valued at $2.4 million and five packages of cocaine valued at $346,000, officials said.

Barnaby-Gill remained in federal custody Tuesday pending an appearance before a U.S. magistrate.

North of Laredo, the U.S. Border Patrol said agents at the Interstate 35 traffic checkpoint seized $6.2 million worth of cocaine and $3.4 million of marijuana.

Agents found more than 190 pounds of cocaine in the luggage compartment of a bus after a service dog alerted them late Monday. The driver, a Mexican national, "is being processed for removal" for possession of fraudulent documents, the Border Patrol said.

On Tuesday morning, agents, again alerted by a service dog, found 4,200 pounds of marijuana mixed in with a shipment of tequila in a tractor-trailer. The driver, a U.S. citizen, was arrested.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5054132.html