MEXICAN TROOPS MAKE MARIJUANA FIND

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican troops seized about 5,000 pounds of marijuana at
three sites in the Tijuana area, including almost a ton they found inside
two small airplanes abandoned on a desert air strip, officials said Saturday.

The troops were on a drug eradication mission when they happened upon the
aircraft with 1,775 pounds inside earlier this week about 95 miles from the
border city, a defense department statement said.

Another army unit based at the Tijuana International Airport reported
finding two dozen cardboard boxes holding 2,048 pounds of marijuana in the
baggage claim area.

Finally, a third army unit based at a Tijuana railway station saw some
boxes made to look like railway ties aboard a train headed to the nearby
city of Mexicali.

The fake railway ties were opened and found to contain 1,188 pounds of
marijuana.

No arrests were made related to the seizures.

On Saturday, a Mexico State judge ordered reputed drug lord Jesus Albino
Quintero Meraz held over for trial on drug and organized crime charges.

Quintero Meraz, who allegedly bribed a Mexican governor and shipped at
least a ton of cocaine to the United States, was captured in May in the
Gulf coast city of Veracruz.