Federal authorities in San Diego have made one of the largest marijuana seizures in the United States, confiscating more than 20 tons of pot that was smuggled into the country through an underground tunnel connecting warehouses on either side of California's border with Mexico, officials said Wednesday.
Mexican authorities seized more than four tons of pot from the warehouse on their side of the border.
The marijuana is worth more than $20 million if sold on the streets of San Diego, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. The bricks of pot were packaged for sale.
"This is obviously the work of a cartel," said Morton, who held a news conference outside the warehouse in an industrial park near the Otay Mesa truck crossing, across from Tijuana.
Officials said the lightening-speed, 12-hour operation started Tuesday night when U.S. authorities watching a warehouse under surveillance followed a tractor-trailer as it left the building.
ICE agents called in the California Highway Patrol, whose officers stopped the rig near Temecula, Calif., about 60 miles way. Authorities say they found 10 tons of marijuana inside the tractor-trailer. The driver, a U.S. citizen, and his Mexican wife were arrested and will be arraigned in San Diego on Thursday.
Authorities quickly obtained a federal search warrant to enter the warehouse, where they discovered 10 to 15 more tons of marijuana, Morton said.
They also found the opening to the tunnel, which ran the length of six football fields under the border and ended at a warehouse in Mexico, Morton said. The tunnel had lighting, ventilation and a rail system to send loads of illegal drugs into California.
The clandestine passageway was too low to stand up in and was believed to be in operation for only a brief time, Morton said.More here
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8 comments:
20 tons WOW....have a huge fire and charge admission. They could make more than the street value lol
i thought illegals were simply coming here to better their lives and do the work that regular americans wouldnt do? oh yeah, i guess regular americans wouldnt try that huh?
Good grief , there goes Californias economy
10:54
This story is GREAT for California's economy. Get rid of the competition on the street. We don't need that mexican weed anyway.
MEXICAN pot?? Worth $20 million? Who are they kidding?? The police are patting themselves on the back and some cop somewhere is already thinking about where he will put the "Cop of the Year" plaque on his wall...meanwhile, the price of pot is totally unaffected, no one is "going without", and there are still probably a couple of dozen tunnels still operating 24-7. Sort of like wiping a drop of rain off your windshield in a thunderstorm....$20 million??? LOL!
do the math Pot on average is $10.00 for 2 grams, there are 28 grams in an ounce, so say $140.00 an ounce. 16 ounces in a pound, so 140X16=$2240.00 a pound. there are 2000 pounds in a ton, so 2240X2000=$4,448,000.00X20=89,600,000.00
20 tons of weed equals 89 million600 thousand dollars. that is street value if it was all broken down to be sold by the gram. Obviously if they sell it in bulk it is like going to walmart its cheaper. But Street value means what the average amount you can by on the street corner. So there you have it!
And that is just average weed you can buy on the street, so if mexican ditch weed then cut the number in half for the junk weed and you still come up with 40million+....
You can buy the baddest pot in the country for under $1000/lb. Your math (and subsequent presumptions) are way off....again, its Mexican pot....I didn't think there was anyone left in the USA who even BOUGHT Mexican dirtweed anymore....might have been a "gimme" to the federales to keep the heat off the REAL stuff...after all, the PACKAGING probably costs more than the herb. You know, the big dealers will give the police a low-level dealer every once in a while so the cops can brag about how hard they are working. Same thing here.
that's nothing compared to the indoor grow right here in the states and perhaps your own neighborhood
30,000 plus in 90 days it quite tempting in these times
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