Borderland Beat![]()
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Members of the Mexican Army and Agents of the State Preventive Police seized 41.6 metric tons of Marijuana (almost 92 thousand lbs) in the city of Tijuana.
On June 10, after an anonymous tip was given to authorities, a couple by the name of Francisco Pineda Villanueva and Blanca Estela Robles Garcia were arrested by members of the Mexican Army and State Preventive Police when they were driving a Honda CR-V loaded with 54 kilos of Marijuana.
After being questioned, the couple admitted they "worked" as guards in a warehouse were much more drugs were to be found.
After their confession, a search warrant was requested to the Attorney General´s Office and members of the Army drove in more than 40 vehicles to a warehouse located in Laderas street belonging to the Granjas Familiares area to make sure no one took away the drugs.
On June 12, two days after the couple´s arrest, the search warrant was given and the soldiers opened the doors to the ranch. Inside the ranch, located inside an underground room, the soldiers found 5271 packages with a total weight of 41.6 metric tons of Marijuana, the largest seizure of drugs in Baja California this year(a record seizure of 134 metric tons back in 2010 is still the largest in Baja´s history).
According to General Gabriel Garcia Rincon, Commander of the 2nd Military Zone, the drugs was in prime state and was packaged with over 15 different signs and logos(including the cartoon character Road Runner) which could give a sign of where they came from and/or where they were headed to.
The couple in charge of the warehouse was transferred to Federal custody and their 3 children who lived with them in the same warehouse were taken to the local DIF(Children care)
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| Gral. Gabriel Garcia Rincon and Governor Francisco Vega |
The anonymous tip helped in finding this warehouse even thou, at least according to authorities, they knew there was a drug warehouse in the area, they just didn´t know exactly where.
Erick Lara Cabrera, Deputy Director of Intelligence for PEP claimed it took them several weeks of work to be able to find this place.
Unofficial information points to Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada as the owner of the drugs.
ORIGINAL INFO TAKEN FROM AFN Tijuana, ZETA Tijuana