U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) recently confiscated a record-setting drug shipment at the San Diego land port of entry.
Over 17,000 pounds of street drugs, including over 6,000 packages of methamphetamine and close to 200 packages of fentanyl, were seized from a truck trying to cross the Otay Mesa Port of Entry earlier this week, according to an ICE press release. It went down as one of the biggest confiscations of drugs in U.S. history.
HSI San Diego Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz said the effort was due to agents who dutifully executed their jobs.
“This record-breaking commercial seizure exemplifies the joint efforts of CBP and HSI employees, who work tirelessly each day to protect our ports of entry from the threats posed by drug cartels and other transnational criminal organizations,” Plantz said. “Countless lives will be saved because of this historic seizure of methamphetamine and fentanyl, but make no mistake: drug cartels strive to exploit our borders to further their criminal enterprises every day.”
As the truck passed through the station’s X-Ray machine, agents were notified of abnormalities in the truck’s trailer, which a drug-sniffing canine validated, the release said.
The suspect is Mexican-citizen Carlos Martin Quintana-Arias, 37, who had “applied for entry into the U.S. with a manifest that identified the contents of his 1996 Stoug trailer as automotive body parts,” ICE said. The case will be handled by the Southern District of California’s U.S. Attorney’s office.
