Agents Discover 60 Pounds of Cocaine in Car at Border

U.S. customs agents seized 60.4 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $4.5 million early Saturday after the illegal substance was found concealed in a vehicle arriving from Mexico at the San Ysidro port of entry, authorities said.

The driver of the vehicle, Adrian Aranda, 26, a U.S. citizen who resides in Tijuana, was arrested in connection with the 4 a.m. seizure, according to the U.S. Customs Service.

U.S. inspectors recognized the suspect’s vehicle--a 1974 International Scout--as the same one that had approached the border crossing several hours earlier, only to turn back, apparently attempting to avoid detection, the customs service said.

Upon the vehicle’s second approach, suspicious agents escorted the Scout to customs’ secondary inspection lot, where a detector dog alerted officials to the front fenders.

Lawmen say they found 26 packages of cocaine wrapped in duct tape and plastic and secreted in the fender panels.

Federal officials say that a massive volume of illegal narcotics and other prohibited substances is smuggled into the United States regularly from Mexico.

While smugglers ship some drugs and other items via the many open spaces along the almost-2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, officials say that traffickers also attempt to smuggle in drugs and other contraband via San Ysidro and other legal ports of entry, where heavy use prohibits extensive searches of every person and vehicle entering the United States.

Since the start of the federal fiscal year on Oct. 1., customs agents based in San Diego have seized more than 4 tons of cocaine--a considerable increase compared to the less than 200 pounds confiscated during the same period in the previous fiscal year, said Rudy M. Camacho, district director of customs.

However, the vast majority of this year’s seizures resulted from a single 4-ton haul discovered last October in a propane truck headed north from Tijuana.

That event constituted the largest-ever cocaine bust at a U.S. land border, authorities said.