Posted on 07/20/2007 7:19:43 PM PDT by Dubya
McALLEN, Texas — Separate arrests within 24 hours in a South Texas county led to the seizure of more than 2,200 pounds of cocaine with a street value of at least $100 million, officials said Friday.
Combined, the cocaine busts Wednesday and Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Hidalgo County District Attorney's High Intensity Drug Task Force were the largest this year for ICE, said Julie L. Myers, an assistant secretary for Homeland Security.
It wasn't clear whether the arrests were connected, said ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda.
Martin Garcia, 46, of Edinburg was arrested Thursday after authorities acting on a tip found 1,317 pounds of cocaine packed inside a trailer in front of a home near Edinburg.
On Wednesday, 888 pounds of cocaine were seized from inside a tractor trailer that had been under surveillance. ICE and drug task force agents coordinated a traffic stop with the Texas Department of Public Safety after the truck left Monte Cristo near Edinburg, about 260 miles south of San Antonio.
The driver, 56-year-old Robert Davila of nearby San Carlos, was arrested.
Garcia, who appeared in court Friday, and Davila face charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy with intent to distribute cocaine.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
“The scary part is that Americans are so strung out on drugs that the demand is that high!”
I guess so. Nobody I associate with though : )
Me either!! Thank God that I was never around people who did serious drugs. When I was going through my second childhood, I did smoke an occasional joint with friends. It just made me giggle, and giggle, and giggle. LOL
Why did you insert that?
I can answer that for you, FRiend. It's because ICE doesn't work drugs. When they are involved, it's because they are after illegals. :o)
Sheriff Joe Arpaio sez:
"I don't know how to stop the drug traffic, and I've been in it for 38 years," the sheriff, widely touted as the toughest cop in the nation, told Harper's in 2001. "I think if I knew, I'd be the president. I can give you what's been said 50 years ago. ...
It's the same thing we're saying today – tough law enforcement, prevention, rehabilitation ... Nothing's changed.
The stuff coming across the border that we catch? Ten percent. Fifty years ago, 10 percent. Today, 10 percent. Nothing's changed ... I don't know how to solve the problem. Don't ask me."
who uses the stuff - i don’t know one person who does
I really wish some conservative minded director would present this whole border patrol saga in dramatic form. It would sell like hotcakes.
Good bust.
“I can answer that for you, FRiend. It’s because ICE doesn’t work drugs. When they are involved, it’s because they are after illegals. :o)”
So there! : )
LOL! Ornery! ;o)
LOL... Many folks will say that ICE doesn't work drugs or illegals!
Ornery works for me!!
I'll just bet it does. LOL
Why does everyone think that’s the standard practice? Too much TV? If it was standard practice for drug cartels to kill everyone unfortunate enough to get busted carrying their dope then all of these people that get caught would cooperate with law enforcement in exchange for protection. Most of them don’t cooperate though, because they know what is likely to happen to them if they do.
I can answer that one. In drug mule cases law enforcement doesn’t check the load for fingerprints because the people driving the vehicles are almost never the ones that loaded them. If they took fingerprints then the drivers could come back and say, “look, this proves we didn’t load this dope, which supports our story that we didn’t know anything about it.” I’ve handled thousands of pounds worth of drug mule cases as a defense attorney and in my experience law enforcement almost never checks the load for fingerprints. At least where I live and work the standard practice is to not check the load for prints in the drug mule cases. They never do it in my area and they seize thousands and thousands of pounds of dope of the highway running through my county every year.
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