CBP Cargo Officers Stop Almost a Ton of Narcotics

Otay Mesa, Calif. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa cargo facility yesterday morning discovered 1,865 pounds of marijuana in a supposedly empty tractor-trailer.

At about 9:30 a.m., April 5, CBP officers were screening trucks as they waited in line to be inspected when a narcotic/human detector dog alerted to a 1996 Freightliner tractor, driven by a 48-year-old Tijuana man, pulling a trailer that was supposed to be empty.

CBP officers then ran the trailer through the port’s imaging system, which showed anomalies with floor of the conveyance.

An officer drilled the trailer floor and extracted a leafy green substance that field-tested positive for marijuana. Officers subsequently extracted 412 wrapped packages of marijuana, weighing 1,865 pounds from a non-factory floor compartment, valued at more than $1.1 million.

The driver, a citizen of Mexico, was arrested and transported to the Metropolitan Correctional Center to await arraignment. CBP seized the marijuana and the tractor and trailer.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.