Border Patrol Agents Thwart Attempt to Smuggle Pot

Border Patrol agents seized almost a ton of marijuana--a cache worth more than $3.1 million-- near Tecate Wednesday, authorities said.

Agents spied a pickup truck with a camper shell driving across the border from Mexico about a quarter of a mile east of the Tecate port of entry at 6:15 a.m. When the agents attempted to stop the truck, its driver made a sudden U-turn and drove back toward Mexico, said Steve Kean, a Border Patrol spokesman.

The truck became stuck in a ditch, and the driver dodged the agents and fled into Mexico. Agents examined the truck and discovered 1,566 pounds of marijuana wrapped in 45 cellophane bundles that were stowed inside the camper shell. The street value of the marijuana is about $3,132,000, Kean said.

Since the Border Patrol erected the reinforced steel fence on Otay Mesa last October, agents have seized three times more marijuana and 10 times more cocaine than during 12 months of the previous fiscal year, Kean said. The fence has forced drug smugglers into smaller areas and more remote regions, he said. Since October, agents seized 28,396 pounds of marijuana and 6,947 pounds of cocaine. For the entire previous fiscal year, which begins in October, agents snared 8,495 pounds of marijuana and 682 pounds of cocaine, Kean said.