Mexican Trucker Said He Was Hauling Mattresses but what Border Patrol Found Inside Broke a Drug-Smuggling Record

by Greg Campbell | March 1, 2015 7:01 pm

While the millions of illegals streaming across the border are bad enough, the fact is that an unsecured border also welcomes drugs and terrorists across the porous border. The Blaze[1] reports on a recent record-breaking drug haul discovered after the Mexican driver claimed he was hauling only mattresses.

ZTruck2[2]

A trucker crossing into California from Mexico at the Otay Mesa port of entry Thursday evening was arrested and had his truck and cargo confiscated after he pulled up hauling nearly 32,000 pounds of marijuana, U-T San Diego reported[3].

It wasn’t concealed or anything. It was just sitting there inside the truck.

The driver, a 46-year-old Mexican citizen with a valid border-crossing card, claimed he was carrying mattresses, but officers only found a few mattresses in the truck, stacked away from the truck doors.

The 1,296 bundles of marijuana recovered from the truck made Thursday’s bust the largest in the history of the Otay Mesa Port of entry and the second-largest in the history of the country, NBC News noted[4].

The 15 tons of weed had a value of $18.96 million, law enforcement agents said.

The driver, Martin Martinez-Penaflor, confessed to knowing what he was carrying, saying he’d been offered $50,000 to take the drugs from Tijuana to Burbank, U-T San Diego reported.

Authorities deemed his unconcealed method of drug smuggling “very risky.”

Martinez-Penaflor was jailed in San Diego, and his tractor trailer, bearing California license plates, was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The haul is impressive, but one has to wonder how many trucks aren’t being discovered thanks to poor prioritization of border security.

Endnotes:
  1. The Blaze: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/28/mexican-trucker-said-he-was-hauling-mattresses-what-the-border-patrol-found-inside-broke-a-drug-smuggling-record/
  2. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ZTruck2.jpg
  3. U-T San Diego reported: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/feb/27/record-pot-seizure-at-border-15-tons-19-million/2/?#article-copy
  4. NBC News noted: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Record-Breaking-Bust-15-Tons-of-Pot-at-Otay-Mesa-294459401.html?cid=sm_tw&hootPostID=da2924a015364119eb1cd851ad443879

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