Yuma agents foil drug smuggling attempt
BY JAMES GILBERT, SUN STAFF WRITER
July 3, 2008 - 5:24PM
Border Patrol agents assigned to the Yuma station foiled a smuggling attempt late Wednesday evening and seized more than $2 million worth of marijuana.

At approximately 8:30 p.m., a Yuma Sector enforcement specialist operating a camera deployed along the border observed multiple subjects emerging from a drainage pipe near County 21st Street and the Colorado River.

"That drain is actually becoming a problem for us," said Yuma Sector Border Patrol spokesman Eric Anderson. "We have actually found illegal aliens hiding in there before."

Anderson explained that enforcement specialists are civilian employees who work for the Border Patrol operating their cameras out of the sector building.

A Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine helicopter, as well as several agents, responded to the area and were able to follow the tracks from the Colorado River back to the drainage pipe.

The suspected drug smugglers, however, Anderson said, returned to Mexico before agents arrived on the scene.

During a search of the drainage pipe, agents discovered 26 bundles of marijuana deposited inside. The bundles weighed approximately 940 pounds and had an estimated street value of $2,182,888.

The marijuana was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

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