BOULEVARD : Border Patrol Nabs Half a Ton of Pot
U.S. Border Patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies seized half a ton of marijuana near Boulevard Thursday night after chasing a truck that had crossed the border with its lights out, guided by a man carrying a flashlight.
A Border Patrol spokesman said the seizure came one week after a similar one-ton seizure in the same area, which has seen an increase in drug traffic since the steel-mat border fence was erected to the west.
About 10:30 p.m. Thursday, agents spotted the vehicle crossing the border about 25 miles east of the Tecate Port of Entry, headed for Old Highway 80 with its lights out, the spokesman said.
When it headed west on the highway, Border Patrol agents converged on the vehicle and two men fled on foot into Mexico. Inside the truck, agents found 371 packages of marijuana, weighing 1,067 pounds, with a street value of $2.1 million.
Last week’s seizure in the same area yielded one ton of marijuana, the spokesman said. In a separate incident Thursday on Otay Mesa, Border Patrol agents seized 112 pounds of marijuana when two men carrying the packages by hand dropped them and fled into Mexico, the spokesman said.
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