Tip leads to 900 pounds of marijuana, three arrests
Police believe the drugs were bound for the East Coast
By IDELFONSO ORTIZ Brownsville News
Jan. 13, 2011, 7:46AM



An anonymous tip led the Cameron County Sheriff's Department to a seizure of more than 970 pounds of marijuana and the arrest of three men from the Mexican state of Michoacan.

David Muratalla Avalos, 30, Mario Alberto Ibanez Moreno, 24, and Antonio Mora, 26, were arrested Tuesday night at a warehouse along Expressway 83 in La Feria, Sheriff Omar Lucio said.

The three men appeared before a federal judge Wednesday morning on charges of possessing and conspiring to distribute marijuana. Records show that all three were ordered into federal custody without bond until a detention hearing this Friday.

The narcotics unit received an anonymous tip about irregular traffic and suspicious activity at an auto-parts warehouse on the 2800 block of West Expressway 83, Lucio said.

"We had people stake out the place and set up surveillance," he said. "They spent most of the day out there, and after they got enough information they made contact with the men inside and got consent to search the premises."

Narcotics agents searched the inside of the warehouse, which had a sign that read Cordon Auto Parts, Lucio said. Inside authorities found several boxes with auto parts that had a false bottom, the sheriff said. Bundles of marijuana were hidden inside.

Altogether, authorities seized 976 pounds of marijuana, Lucio said.

Two of the men who were arrested had passports and one was undocumented, Lucio said.

The men had been renting an apartment in Hidalgo County and renting the warehouse in La Feria for several months, he added. Investigators, who are trying to pin down ties to organized crime, said the men have been reluctant to talk.

"At this point they are not saying much," Lucio said.

He said they had determined that the drugs were being packaged to be taken to a large city on the East Coast.

"In a large city like Atlanta or Philadelphia, a pound of marijuana can be worth $1,000 to $1,200," Lucio said. "If they had gotten these drugs over there they would have been worth close to a million dollars."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 79602.html