MARIPOSA POSTS RECORD POT SEIZURE

Officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection probed a load of
tomatoes and found $9.9 million worth of marijuana Saturday wrapped
267 bales inside a tractor-trailer.

The pot topped 6,000 pounds, the largest seizure of its kind at the
Nogales border. That quantity is enough to supply every man, woman
and child in Santa Cruz County with more than two ounces, or up to
240 cigarettes of the illicit weed.

Here's The Deal

Brian Levin, an agency spokesman, gave the following account:

Officers of the Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team (A-TCET)
were screening commercial vehicles June 2 at the Mariposa Port of
Entry and "targeted a 2006 Kenworth T-300 tractor with a refrigerated
trailer" supposedly carrying only tomatoes.

"The truck and trailer were sent into the commercial facility for an
inspection using the port's truck X-ray system, where a narcotics
detector dog screening commercial vehicles waiting to be scanned
alerted to the odor of narcotics coming from the trailer. The truck,
trailer, and contents were then scanned using the X-ray, which showed
discrepancies in the load of tomatoes.

"Officers opened the trailer and began removing the pallets of
tomatoes. They discovered 267 bales of marijuana, weighing more than
6,160 pounds, with an estimated street value of $9.9 million, Levin said.

"The driver was arrested and turned over to special agents with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation and
prosecution," he said, adding that the suspect is a 31-year-old
Nogales, Sonora man.

The tractor, trailer, and narcotics were seized, while the tomatoes
were loaded onto a different trailer and allowed to continue into the
United States.

Largest Seizure

"This is the largest marijuana seizure the Nogales port of entry has
seen," Levin said. "The last seizure of this magnitude happened on
May 8 of this year, when the same officers seized 3,862 pounds of
marijuana hidden inside another tractor-trailer carrying squash."

According to Dale Gieringer in his book "Economics of Cannabis
Legalization," the number of cigarettes, or joints derived from an
ounce of marijuana varies between 60 and 120, depending on the
quality and seed content.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year, CBP officers at the Nogales
port of entry have stopped 154 attempts at smuggling marijuana into
the United States, seizing more than 30,518 pounds of the drug.

During the same time period last fiscal year, the officers stopped
100 attempts, seizing 19,560 pounds of marijuana.