On 10 June 2015 Mexican soldiers and Baja California state police stopped a Honda CR-V in Tijuana after an anonymous tip and found 54 kg of marijuana inside.[1][2][3] The couple in the car, Francisco Pineda Villanueva and Blanca Estela Robles García, said they worked as guards at a warehouse holding a much larger stash.[2][3]

Two days later, with a search warrant granted, troops in more than 40 vehicles surrounded a warehouse on Laderas street in the Granjas Familiares area and found 5,271 brown-taped packages in an underground room holding 41.6 metric tons of marijuana.[1][2][3] Second Military Zone commander Gabriel García Rincón called it Baja California’s biggest seizure since the record 134-ton haul of 2010, and said the packages carried more than 15 different logos, including the Road Runner cartoon.[2][3]

The couple, a married pair living at the warehouse with their three children, were placed in federal custody and the children handed to the DIF child-welfare agency.[1][2] The operation was run jointly with the State Preventive Police after several weeks of intelligence work.[1][2]