Nine tons of marijuana found in tractor-trailer at Otay Mesa crossing
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found more than nine tons of marijuana packed as pillow-sized bricks in a tractor-trailer at the Otay Mesa port of entry on 22 November 2011, worth over $13 million. ICE agents arrested seven suspects as they moved the bricks into a cargo truck at a nearby junkyard; all seven were charged with drug smuggling.
🇺🇸 Otay Mesa Commercial Port of Entry, San Diego, California · California, United States
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found more than nine tons of marijuana inside a tractor-trailer attempting to enter the United States at the Otay Mesa Commercial Port of Entry on Tuesday 22 November 2011.[1][2]During a secondary X-ray inspection, officers saw the trailer packed with hundreds of pillow-sized bricks of marijuana with an estimated street value of more than $13 million.[1][2]
After the discovery, ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents kept the tractor-trailer under surveillance as it left the crossing for a nearby junkyard.[1]There they arrested seven suspects, aged 19 to 47, as the bricks were transferred into a waiting cargo truck; both trucks were seized.[1][2]The suspects, from San Diego, Chula Vista and Tijuana, were arraigned in federal court on Wednesday charged with drug smuggling.[1][2]The seizure came near the same crossing where a major underground drug-smuggling tunnel had been discovered earlier that month.[2]
Photos and video
Tractor-trailer packed with pillow-sized bricks of marijuana seized at Otay Mesa.Photo details
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