San Ysidro
A pickup truck carrying 74 1/2 pounds of cocaine with a street value of nearly $30 million was seized by U.S. Customs inspectors at the San Ysidro port of entry, customs officials said Monday.
The seizure was the largest recorded at the California-Mexico border, said John Miller, a spokesman for the Customs Service’s Southern California sector.
Miller said a 22-year-old Colombian woman was arrested Saturday afternoon when the drugs were seized. Martha Lucia Garcia was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on charges of possession and intent to distribute cocaine.
The cocaine was discovered after a customs inspector suspected something was wrong with the pickup truck as it entered his lane, Miller said. The truck was ordered to a second lane, where it was inspected by a drug-sniffing dog. The dog found the cocaine in specially built compartments beneath the body of the truck, authorities said.
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