May 20, 2024

Border Patrol Seizes $10 Million Worth of Meth, Cocaine in San Diego

A industrial tractor-trailer driver was caught transporting greater than $10 million value of narcotics into the U.S. from the southern border, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers mentioned Thursday.

The 28-year-old driver was intercepted Wednesday morning at Otay Mesa Cargo Facility in San Diego, California, the place CBP officers pulled tons of of “suspicious packages” from “vats of jalapeno paste” from the truck, a press release acknowledged.

The unnamed driver, whom officers say is a sound border-crossing card holder, was screened by a CBP Okay-9 unit that alerted officers to look at the trailer extra carefully.

Upon additional examination, the contents of the packages have been recognized as 3,161.43 kilos of methamphetamine and 522.50 kilos of cocaine.

In whole, 332 packages of methamphetamine and cocaine weighing 3,684 kilos have been seized from the cargo.

CBP estimates the road worth of the medication as $10,430,000.

The tractor-trailer was seized, and the driving force was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for additional processing, officers mentioned. 

“Our K-9 teams are an invaluable component of our counter-narcotics operations, providing a reliable and unequaled mobile detection capability,” mentioned Rosa Hernandez, director of Otay Mesa Port.

“By implementing local operations under Operation Apollo and CBP’s Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and other Synthetic Drugs, we will continue to secure communities and stifle the growth of transnational criminal organizations, one seizure after another,” she added. 

In November, the San Diego CBP Field Office seized greater than 14,000 kilos of narcotics whereas conducting safety operations at California’s land ports of entry, the company mentioned.

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