Border officials at Pembina seize $1.6 million worth of pot
Border officials at Pembina seize $1.6 million worth of pot
By JAMES MACPHERSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BISMARCK, N.D. -- Federal agents at the Pembina port of entry seized 555 pounds of high-grade marijuana hidden in the floorboards of an otherwise empty semitrailer.
Saturday's seizure was the third-biggest pot bust along the North Dakota border, said Barbara Hassler, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official in Pembina.
"This is significant and a wonderful find," she said.
The highly potent 'B.C. Bud' variety had a street value of about $1.6 million, said Mike Milne, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Seattle.
The hydroponically grown Canadian pot fetches between $3,000 and $6,000 a pound on the street - far more than marijuana smuggled from Mexico, Milne said.
"It's the good stuff," he said Tuesday.
The marijuana was hidden in the floorboards of the trailer, in 488 vacuum-packed bags. The tractor-trailer combination, valued at $34,000, also was seized. The driver was questioned and released.
"We couldn't prove he knew anything about it," Milne said.
The marijuana was found after a Customs and Border Protection agent ordered an inspection of the semitrailer by the Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System at the northeastern North Dakota port. The VACIS system uses gamma radiation to scan tractor-trailer shipments for drugs, weapons and illegal aliens.
"It's a great tool," Hassler said.
Last May, agents found 584 pounds of marijuana hidden in the walls of a semitrailer at the Pembina crossing, Milne said.
In 2003, officials seized 1,235 pounds of marijuana at the Portal point of entry, in north central North Dakota, after federal inspectors found it in a semitrailer. The pot, which had a street value of about $3.7 million, was stored in cardboard boxes and duffel bags, and hidden in a shipment of peat moss and planting soil, officials said.
