Border Patrol Agents Arrest 3, Seize Drugs in 2 Busts

Border Patrol agents confiscated nearly 35 pounds of marijuana here Thursday, less than two days after seizing about 40 pounds of cocaine that had an estimated street value of more than $1.2 million, officials said.

Shortly after noon Thursday, agents arrested a male U.S. citizen and his female companion, a legal visitor from Mexico, and confiscated 34.7 pounds of marijuana from the spare-tire well of the couple’s car, officials said.

But the more significant drug bust occurred late Tuesday, when, during a routine inspection of a commercial bus, agents questioned a man who “appeared increasingly nervous,” according to Border Patrol Agent David Kimball.

Agents confiscated the cocaine, with a street value of $1.26 million, from a bag the male passenger was carrying in his overhead compartment, Kimball said, noting that no other passengers were arrested.

Kimball said the man was also carrying a “cloned” cellular flip phone, meaning one with a stolen number. The suspect, a legal U.S. resident from Mexico, had illegally cloned the number to charge telephone calls to a party other than himself, according to investigators.

Border Patrol officials have long maintained that drug busts are among the primary reasons for keeping an inland immigration checkpoint open here, more than 60 miles north of the International Border.

Marijuana arrests alone have increased 40% in the last year, Kimball said, noting that 14,604 pounds of marijuana were seized from March 1995 to February of this year. The total value of all drugs seized during that period, he said, was slightly more than $18 million.

The three suspects seized in this week’s arrests have been turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.