CBP Officers Seized More Than $1.3 Million in Drugs Last Week

By Matthew Harwood

09/02/2008 - United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers arrested twelve people and seized more than $1.3 million in illegal drugs last week at two different California-Mexico border crossings and at a United Postal Service (UPS) facility in Kentucky.

The bigger busts came at the busy San Ysidro, California, port of entry where CBP officers made 11 arrests—eight drivers and three passengers—and confiscated more than $1.1 million in narcotics that weighed in at more than 800 pounds.

According to the CBP:

CBP officers on Monday and Tuesday [August 25 and 26] made seven marijuana seizures totaling 755 pounds and valued at about $340,000. They also discovered another car containing over 24 pounds of methamphetamine and 34 pounds of cocaine valued together at about $827,000.

Also on Monday, CBP officers stationed at a UPS facility in Louisville, Kentucky, discovered $50,000 in heroin stashed in a woman's suit shipped from New Delhi, India, after it passed through a routine X-ray scan. The parcel was bound for a consignee in Toronto, Canada. No arrests, however, have been made.

CBP Director of Field Operations David Murphy praised his officers, saying “I give our officers a lot of credit for finding drugs hidden in every conceivable manner at this facility and not letting them through. This heroin will never make it to a community now thanks to the diligence of CBP.”

CBP officers at the UPS facility in Louisville process more than 40,000 parcels a night, according to the CBP.

Finally on Wednesday, CBP officers at the Calexico downtown port of entry intercepted another marijuana smuggling attempt after a human/narcotic detector dog alerted officers to the gas tank area of a 1998 commercial bus. CBP officers found a non-factory compartment underneath the bus containing 16 wrapped packages of marijuana with a street value of more than $100,000.

The driver, a 30-year old Mexican-American, was arrested and the vehicle and marijuana seized.