U.S. SEIZES POT LISTED AS MACHINERY

Herald Staff Report

A shipment at the Port of Miami-Dade labeled "machinery'' on a cargo
manifesto was actually marijuana -- 3,309 pounds of it -- U.S. Customs
spokesman Zachary Mann said Wednesday.

The seizure came just one day after Customs and the U.S. attorney's office
in Miami announced the indictments of 13 current and former port workers on
charges of conspiracy to import illegal drugs.

Agents discovered the marijuana -- worth $3.2 million on the street -- in a
routine targeting and inspection process.

One 20-foot container, which had arrived from Kingston, Jamaica, aboard the
Cagema St. Lucia, had a metal cylinder inside, he said. "Hidden behind that
cylinder, inspectors found 65 large bales, which certainly seemed out of
place,'' Mann said. They were marijuana, he said.

Mann said agents believe that the way the marijuana was concealed shows
that smugglers are employing port personnel or others with access to the port.