Customs Inspectors Draining Suspicious Propane Rail Cars

SAN DIEGO — After stopping a freight train suspected of involvement in smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities were draining two propane tanker cars in a San Bernardino County rail yard Sunday in order to conduct a search.

The top suspicion is that the train carried drugs clandestinely across the border from Mexico, said U.S. Customs spokeswoman Bobbie Cassidy. But the laborious process of emptying propane gas fumes out of the tanker cars was expected to postpone the search until today or Tuesday, officials said, declining to give further details.

“We don’t know what we have yet,” said Cassidy, who was unaware of any previous smuggling busts involving trains in Southern California.

In addition to the contents of the tanker cars, there were numerous unanswered questions about the incident Sunday. The train crossed the border Thursday afternoon at Calexico, where customs inspectors determined that the supposedly empty cars were overweight, according to a law enforcement official who asked not to be identified.

The inspectors put a hold on the cars, requiring them to clear further inspection before leaving the border area, but somehow a train ended up taking the cars north, according to the official. Investigators then scrambled to track down the train and bring the suspect cars to a Southern Pacific rail yard near Colton, sources said.

“By the time they located them, they were in the (Colton) area,” the official said.

One informed source said the border inspectors determined an excess weight of about 6,000 pounds and that the train cars were suspicious because they lacked the usual identifying markers.

Customs officials declined further comment. A Southern Pacific Railroad official said the tank cars had been moved to a private repair facility nearby.

On Friday morning, firefighters were called to stand by during the process of “bleeding” volatile gas fumes from the tankers, according to a dispatcher for the Central Valley Fire District. He said firefighters left the scene Friday evening.

In 1990, a propane tanker truck was involved in the biggest drug seizure in border history: Inspectors discovered about 7,700 pounds of cocaine hidden in the truck at the Otay Mesa commercial crossing. There have been periodic reports that trains are used in narcotics smuggling, according to law enforcement officials.

During the past several years, border law enforcement experts have expressed fear that powerful Latin American drug cartels will take advantage of the speeded flow of legitimate goods created by NAFTA to sneak narcotics shipments past overworked inspectors.

The cartels have expanded their use of trucking firms, food exporting companies and other businesses as fronts, according to experts.