U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the Tucson Field Office seized nearly 5,000 pounds of marijuana Saturday afternoon, worth nearly $2.5 Million hidden in a shipment of watermelons.
Officers at the Mariposa Cargo facility referred a 26-year-old male Mexican national for a secondary inspection of his tractor-trailer load of melons. A physical inspection of the shipment revealed 674 bundles of marijuana weighing almost 5,000 pounds, co-mingled with the shipment. The marijuana had been disguised as melons and was verified by a CBP narcotics detection canine.
The tractor-trailer, drugs, and produce were processed for seizure. The driver was arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.