LOS ANGELES: USCustoms officers have seized nearly four tons of marijuana worth $2.3 millionhidden in a consignment of jalapeno peppers. A sniffer dog alerted officers toa trailer with a shipment of peppers in San Diego on the border with Mexico onThursday, Customs and Border Protection said.
The CBP statementsaid "a 37-year-old male Mexican citizen entered the port of entry drivinga tractor pulling a trailer with cargo manifested as jalapeno peppers."Officers at Otay Mesa cargo facility found 314 packages of marijuana weighing7,560 pounds (3.4 tons) mixed among the jalapeno peppers. "I am proud ofthe officers for seizing this significant marijuana load," said Otay MesaPort director Rosa Hernandez.
It was the secondlarge haul of marijuana at the facility in days. Officers seized 10,642 poundsof the drug in a shipment of plastic auto parts at Otay Mesa on Tuesday. CBPhas seized 113 tons (103 tons) of marijuana so far this year, along with 41tons of cocaine and 27 tons of methamphetamine. In July authorities seizednearly 20 tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of more than $1billion from a ship at the port of Philadelphia in one of the largest drugbusts in US history. - AFP