RECORD MARIJUANA SEIZURE AT SFO

315 Pounds Found; 5 Women Arrested

BURLINGAME -- Five women were arrested Saturday morning on suspicion of the
possession and transportation for sale of marijuana in what police
officials call the biggest one-day marijuana drug bust ever at the San
Francisco International Airport.

San Francisco's International Airport Narcotics Task Force confiscated 11
pieces of luggage with about 315 pounds of marijuana sealed in plastic.
Officers said the street value of the seized marijuana is approximately
$1.2 million.

Virgin Pilar Flores, Victoria Venus Arocho, Amariysa Arocho, Patricia
Motanez and Dasny L. Troche, all from Bronx, New York, were booked at the
San Mateo County jail on $10,000 bail each.

"We believe they are part of a ring working out of the New York City area.
They were carriers being paid to carry marijuana, which came out of
Mexico," said Henry Friedlander, public information officer for the San
Francisco Police Department Airport Bureau. "We know who the ringleader is,
but the key is to get cooperation so we can get him."

At approximately 8:30 a.m., airport officials determined one of Flores'
three bags contained a suspicious item after they were randomly sent
through the x-ray machine. Police arrived at the scene and the bag was
searched. Officers found a large quantity of marijuana sealed with plastic.
After marijuana was detected, the department's trained narcotics dog,
Elway, responded to narcotics in Flores' other two bags.

Flores was then taken into custody.

At the same time, three nearby bags similar to Flores' were identified and
searched by Elway, a four-and-a-half-year-old golden retriever. The dog
responded to narcotic hits in the additional bags.

Further investigation brought the narcotics task force to a local hotel
near the airport, where officers found more bags of marijuana. Three more
arrests were made.

Police said two of the women, Flores and Amariysa Arocho, were scheduled to
depart on the same flight to New York that day and the other three were
going to leave at a later date.

Police would not release the name of the airline or the hotel.

Officials of the task force said that they believe there is an organization
responsible for bringing the marijuana into the U.S., and that a different
organization coordinated transportation of the drug by the women. They are
uncertain as to the exact route the marijuana took to get to San Francisco,
but suspect it could have been flown here through San Diego or Los Angeles.

"We got lucky here and through cooperative investigations and leads we were
able to confiscate a large amount of marijuana," Friedlander said adding
that this probably isn't the first time these women have tried to transport
marijuana at the airport.