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SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa Cargo facility discovered more than $10 million worth of methamphetamine and cocaine hidden in a shipment of jalapeño paste Wednesday morning.
According to CBP, officers encountered a 28-year-old male driving a commercial tractor-trailer claiming he was hauling barrels filled with jalapeño paste.
The driver, who had a valid border crossing, was referred to secondary inspection along with his rig and contents in the trailer.
A CBP K-9 unit screened the shipment and reportedly alerted officers.
Upon further examination, CBP officers discovered and extracted a total of 349 suspicious packages.
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The contents of the packages were tested and identified as methamphetamine weighing more than 3,161 pounds along with more than 522 pounds of cocaine.
“Our K-9 teams are an invaluable component of our counternarcotics operations, providing a reliable and unequaled mobile detection capability,” said Rosa Hernandez, Otay Mesa Port Director. “By implementing local operations under Operation Apollo and CBP’s Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and other Synthetic Drugs, we will continue to secure communities and stifle the growth of transnational criminal organizations, one seizure after another.”
According to CBP, the seized narcotics, commercial tractor-trailer and the driver were turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further processing.
The estimated street value of the narcotics is $10,430,145.
CBP says that during the month of November, its San Diego Field Office seized more than 14,000 pounds of illicit drugs.
