CBP Officers Find 770 Pounds Of Pot In Two Rail Cars

EL PASO –Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents seized 770 pounds of marijuana Wednesday. The drugs were concealed in a pair of rail cars that entered the port from Mexico, officials said.

Early Tuesday morning, a rail train pulling 59 cars arrived for inspection at the CBP rail inspection facility near Downtown. According to CBP officials, the train was scanned with a gamma ray system and this revealed anomalies in the appearance of two covered hopper rail cars.

CBP agents then separated the suspect rail cars and requested a canine sweep. Officials say drug-sniffing dog “Cactus” alerted agents to the same parts of the carts where the gamma ray system detected anomalies.

CBP officers worked with railroad officials to cut an access hole in the area where the anomalies were spotted and agentsfound 252 bundles of marijuana weighing 443 poundson one rail car. The agents then found 246 bundles of potweighing 327pounds in another rail car.

“The inspection of arriving rail cars is very thorough,” said Isabel Mullens, CBP acting Port Director of the El Paso Port of Entry. “Every rail car is scanned with a gamma ray system as it is moving across the border.”

According to a news release, theseizure marks the second time ina month CBPagents in El Paso discovered a sizeable marijuana load concealed in a rail car.

December 15, 2008,agents found 427 pounds of marijuana in another rail car drug load. Every month, CBP officers at the El Paso port of entry process approximately 210 northbound trains at the El Paso rail crossing.

According to officials, those trains haul approximately 12,900 empty and loaded rail cars across the border monthly. The crossings generally occur in the early morning hours so the moving trains will not interfere with street traffic in El Paso and Juarez.

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By ABC-7 News/Web Producer Joe Villasana