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 Strategic Effort Defeats $3.2 Million Smuggling Attempt
+ (Thursday, February 19, 2009)
+ contacts for this news releaseYuma, Ariz. – Utilizing a strategic combination of infrastructure, technology, and personnel, United States Border Patrol agents from the Yuma Station apprehend two vehicles and seize more than two tons of marijuana. At about 9:36 a.m., this morning a Yuma Sector Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS) camera operator observed three vehicles driving east from the International boundary near County 14th Street. The Colorado River serves as the International Boundary between the United States and Mexico in that area. The three vehicles then drove to the Salinity Canal bridge at County 14 ½ street, where several subjects got out of the vehicles and began cutting the lock on the Border Patrol’s vehicular access gate. The Salinity Canal, a large concrete structure constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation, parallels the International Boundary in this area. When the gate had been breached, the third vehicle returned to Mexico utilizing the same route by which it had entered. The two remaining vehicles then drove east across the bridge, and were immediately followed by a CBP Air and Marine helicopter, which was able to guide responding Border Patrol agents to the exact location of the vehicles.As Border Patrol agents responded, the two pickups attempted to return to Mexico at County 11 ½ Street, but found their progress blocked by yet another of the Border Patrol’s vehicular access gates. (RVSS) camera operators observed four individuals jump out of the two vehicles and run approximately 30 feet to the nearby Colorado River with Border Patrol agents hot on their heels. Responding police officers from Los Algodones, Baja California, Mexico managed to apprehend two of the subjects several minutes later. After a comprehensive search of the area, Border Patrol agents retrieved a total of 327 bundles of marijuana from the two vehicles, with a combined weight of 4,010 pounds.
+ ( Video: Border Patrol Chases Down Trucks; Seizes 2 Tons of Marijuana )
+ The marijuana, which has an estimated street value of $3,208,000.00, and both of the vehicles were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws. | |  prev | next | (23 of 138)
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