Border patrol agents bust illegal immigrants and pot load

Arizona Daily Star ^ | Stephen Ceasar

[SandRat]

U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback discovered over 1,300 pounds of marijuana after apprehending 8 illegal immigrants Tuesday in the desert near Arivaca.

Agents operating a Mobile Surveillance System, a vehicle equipped with a telescoping tower mounted with a camera and radar system, spotted a group of people walking in the desert towards Fraguita Peak at about 11 a.m.. They notified other agents near the group, said Esmeralda Marroquin.

Agents approached and apprehended the group of eight and while searching the area for other people discovered 53 bundles of marijuana abandoned in the desert.

The drugs weighed about 1,384 pounds and are estimated to be valued at $1,107,200, said Marroquin.

Since the start of the 2009 fiscal year on Oct. 1, U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector have seized 135,863 pounds marijuana of an estimated worth of $108.7 million dollars, the agency says.

Stephen Ceasar is a University of Arizona student who is apprenticing at the Star. Contact him at 807-7776 or at starapprentice@azstarnet.com.

[SandRat]

Drug/Border PING

[SWAMPSNIPER]

As long as they don’t shoot anyone in the Adoublescribble!

[TommyDale]

These agents will face criminal charges and go to prison for doing their jobs.

[JoanneSD]

Good for the BP, hope they dont end up in jail... for doing this....because the illegals could sue for loosing their livelihood...and their children starving..

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Headline?

Border agents could get eleven to twelve years, says DoJ
DoJ To Prosecute Border Patrol Agents
Mexico City demands Bush Administration investigate, punish border agents' harassment

[gubamyster]

ping

[Pearls Before Swine]

So what happens now? Do the illegals get kicked across the border and get another chance?

As an American citizen with some property, I'd have to worry about serious costs defending myself and possible property seizure if I had a few ounces, let alone 1300 pounds. I feel like a second class citizen -- the law can come down harder on me.

Bag the WOD and tighten up the borders!

[SmallGovRepub]

I wonder how many people got away? There is no way 8 people were carrying 1,300 pounds through the desert. If they were hiking this much in there probably had to be at least 20 of them. The cartel probably had $50,000 or less in this whole load. They were probably going to pay these jokers a couple of hundred a piece, if they weren't doing it just to have the services of a coyote to take them across the border, and then this pot would have been sold for a few hundred dollars a pound in Tucson or a lot more if it was transported to somewhere like the Northeast. Now they lost their investment in this pot, but they've probably more than made up for it with all the loads that didn't get stopped this week.