Posted on 02/23/2003 6:32:19 AM PST by nypokerface
SAN DIEGO - U.S. Customs Service officers seized nearly 10 tons of marijuana from a tractor-trailer truck carrying computer circuits across the U.S.-Mexican border, officials said Saturday.
Investigators said they believed the roughly $9 million shipment was the largest amount of marijuana ever seized on America's Southwest border.
"Any time we can prevent 10 tons of narcotics from entering the streets of America, it's a great day for the U.S. Customs Service," said Michael Turner, special agent in charge of the U.S. Customs Office of Investigations in San Diego.
Investigators found 4,000 plastic-wrapped packages of marijuana inside the truck with California license plates at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, on the eastern edge of San Diego. The truck, on its way north from Mexico, was under inspection Friday when a drug-sniffing dog alerted officials to its cargo. Inside, officials found packages of a green, leafy substance that tested positive for marijuana.
The truck's driver, Carlos Ibarra, 39, of Tijuana, was arrested by Customs agents and transported to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego until his arraignment in federal court.
Before Friday's seizure, the largest amount of marijuana intercepted at the border was about 7.5 tons in April 2001. Earlier this month, officers at the El Paso border seized 6.3 tons.
"Although our primary focus is on anti-terrorism, we have not diminished our commitment to ensuring that dangerous narcotics are denied entry into the United States," said Nat Aycox, U.S. Customs director of field operations in San Diego,
With more than 1.4 million truck crossings per year, the Otay Mesa Port of Entry is the largest commercial crossing along the California-Mexico border, according to the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce. It handles the second highest volume of trucks among all U.S.-Mexico land border crossings.
What was smuggled across the border while Customs was distracted with the weed?
The War on Drugs and Freedom AKA Prohibition has stopped a tiny percentage of the marijuana ,at a cost of how much ?
Don't let the facts of economics and creation of black market by government fiat sway your indignation.
Notice the increase in good ol' tobacco smuggling now that New York and others have hugely increased the taxes.
It amazes me how few people heed the lessons learned by our grandparents with the alcohol Prohibition ; it lead to the widespread disregard for the rule of law by people who otherwise obeyed the laws, it created opportunity for crime gangs to produce what the people wanted without taxes or health and safety rules.
Unless you are willing and able to impose automatic death sentences for violating prohibition laws, they will not succeed.
Hey, here's an idea : a government which derives its powers from the CONSENT of the governed and a government which explicitly recognizes certain and various RIGHTS of the people. Such as the right to defend oneself, to be secure against unwarranted searches,.........Nawww, never work, better have a dictatorship of the self-righteous instead.
OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER
I don't use any drugs including alcohol and don't have a personal or financial interest in anyone who does. I just think I don't want to finance a legal war against people who like vegetables I don't like.
DEA slaying of girl under investigation
When are you thick headed, Neanderthal IQ level, "lets cram our morals down everyone else's throat using government lethal force" imbeciles going to realize that Libertarians aren't exactly pro-drug use, rather they are anti-government interference in peoples' lives.
But then you are probably Republican. You like government telling you what to do.
About 130 immigrants.
This from a guy who supports a party that follows the bong smoke to wither it blows.
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