Bust Puts Much-Traveled Trailer Out of Business

For at least three years, the nondescript trailer was frequently parked just west of the Tecate Port of Entry, sometimes alone, other times lined up alongside other trailers loaded with goods bought in Mexico and shipped throughout Southern California.

Last Monday at 2 a.m. the 60-foot trailer, leased to a fictitious Mexican company called Productos San Quintin, was parked at the same spot. But this time it attracted more than the usual glance from Border Patrol agents.

According to a Border Patrol report, an agent on routine patrol spotted several sets of footprints leading from Mexico to the trailer, which was parked about 100 feet north of the border, and back.

Border Patrol spokesman Steve Kean said the agent found one of the trailer’s doors open. When the agent shined his flashlight inside, he saw several bales of marijuana. All told, agents found 66 bales of marijuana wrapped in plastic trash bags, weighing about 3,960 pounds, officials said.

Investigators believe the Border Patrol agent may have stumbled across the trailer before smugglers finished loading it. No arrests were made, and the investigation was handed over to drug agents from Operation Alliance, a task force representing the Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and the DEA.

Operation Alliance spokesman Bobby Sheppard said the trailer is owned by another phony company whose address is a vacant lot on Heritage Road in Otay Mesa.

According to federal sources and internal reports provided to The Times, Customs and Border Patrol agents have suspected for more than three years that traffickers were using the trailer to smuggle drugs and illegal aliens through Tecate.

A 1989 report titled “Smuggling of Illegal Aliens and Narcotics Utilizing Empty Commercial Trailers Just West of the Tecate Port-of-Entry” warned authorities that the trailer seized Monday was being used for smuggling.

The 1989 report, based on information supplied to U.S. officials by a Mexican informant, said the trailer is one of five or six owned by dummy Mexican corporations and used by smugglers to bring narcotics and aliens into the United States.

“Several (drivers) have offered information not only pointing to but detailing current narcotics and alien-smuggling activities just west of the Tecate port of entry in a large staging lot directly adjacent to an area where the fence is down and foot traffic is apparent,” said the report.

The trailers are usually parked about 150 feet from the border fence, the report continued.

According to the report, the informants’ stories “were substantiated through intensive inspections at the port of entry and follow-up surveillance by Border Patrol agents.”

Several sources familiar with the smugglers’ routine said the trailers are often painted different colors and emblazoned with names of phony Mexican companies. The smugglers also use different California license plates on the trailers to confuse U.S. Customs inspectors and drug agents, federal sources said.

In the case of the trailer seized Monday, sources said that smugglers have attached at least three different license plates to it in the past. The trailer had been cited previously for minor customs violations, but Monday was the first time that U.S. agents had actually found contraband inside.

An investigator at Operation Alliance said officials are not optimistic about finding the trailer’s real owner. However, Sheppard said the trailer has been seized by the government, and that the marijuana will be destroyed.