Border Patrol Agents thwart smuggling attempt: Tractor-Trailer rig yields 800-pound marijuana cache

August 8, 2008
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
U.S. Border Patrol Press Release:

DEL RIO, Texas – Customs and Border Protection-Border Patrol agents staffing a highway checkpoint near Eagle Pass seized more than 800 pounds of marijuana.

At around midnight yesterday [Aug. 6], agents performed an intensive inspection of a gray Freightliner tractor trailer after a service canine alerted to the trailer. The search revealed ten burlap sacks sitting on the floor of the trailer in plain sight.

Agents recovered a total of 380 individually wrapped bundles of marijuana concealed in the sacks, weighing 803.3 pounds and valued at more than $640,000.

The contraband and driver were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Freightliner and trailer were turned over the Del Rio Sector Border Patrol Office of Vehicle Seizure and Asset Forfeiture.