| BOTA hits a small one
Concealment method unusual for PAX |
El Paso's Bridge of the Americas - the locals call it BOTA - is the busiest port of entry in El Paso because it's the only toll-free crossing in the city. Drug smugglers coming from the lower Americas don't really care about tolls, but they do like bridges with lots of traffic because they think it's easier to hide among all those cars.That's their hope at least.Last summer, in keeping with heightened security alerts all over the country, Customs inspectors at BOTA were opening the truck or hood of every car that came though. Inspector Shirley Duke noticed that one otherwise inconspicuous driver seemed nervous even before she asked him to comply with the protocol. So she looked around the car's interior and walked back to the trunk. | | Photo Credit:Â Ken Squires |
| Marijuana concealed in a vegetable can - unusual load for passenger.
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She saw jumbo cans of vegetables there that piqued her inspector's instincts, and then asked the driver to open the hood.As he did so, obscuring his view of Inspector Duke, she went about checking out cans of corn and cans of chilis. She noticed that their labels had been tampered with. While the driver waited by the hood, Duke peeled off one label and saw that the can had been opened, then resealed with aluminum tape. So she placed the guy in handcuffs and referred him for a secondary inspection.When Canine Enforcement Officer Terry Breaux ran his dog Astra over the car, Astra went right for the corn and the chilis. When Duke opened one of the cans, she did indeed find vegetable matter: The cans contained marijuana leaves, 63.2 pounds' worth. |
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