see also: in November 2007 News Releases:   CBP Officers Seize 50 Pounds of Cocaine, Three Pounds of Heroin, Guns & Ammo, Arrest 22 For Illegal Entry and Arrest 20 Fugitives During Two-Week Holiday Span at Laredo Port of Entry   Border Patrol Agents Arrest Convicted Sex Offender   Border Patrol Seizes One Ton of Marijuana at Sierra Blanca Checkpoint   Border Patrol Yields $3.7 Million in a Day’s Seizures   Border Patrol and Coast Guard Sign Cooperation Agreement   CBP Seized Cocaine Concealed in Suitcase   Border Patrol Agents Seize 5,450 Pounds of Marijuana Near Freer ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

contacts for this news release

Marfa, Texas – Marfa, Texas Border Patrol agents seized more than a ton of marijuana in three separate incidents Saturday.

About 3 a.m. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Presidio station discovered evidence of several individuals in an arroyo near Horseshoe Mountain in southern Presidio County. As agents approached a campsite that was obscured by bushes, several individuals attempted to abscond into the surrounding brush. The agents were able to apprehend four males, all Mexican citizens, who admitted to being illegally in the United States. Two of the individuals were juveniles. Agents searched the campsite and located eleven burlap backpacks loaded with 456 packages of marijuana. The drugs weighed 477.1 pounds with an estimated street value of $381,680.

The second load was found when agents received a call that a vehicle was trespassing on a ranch in Brewster County south of the Border Patrol’s Highway 118 checkpoint. About 9 a.m. agents assigned to the Alpine station agents patrolling the area observed a 1999 Ford pickup on one of the ranch roads. When the driver of the pickup saw the agents, he turned the vehicle around and headed away at a high rate of speed. Later, agents located the abandoned pickup stuck in an arroyo. Inside the rear cab, agents found 1,154 bundles of marijuana. The marijuana has a street value of $1,106,080 and weighed a total of 1,382.6 pounds.

The final load was found about 11:30 a.m. Saturday when four hunters on a ranch southwest of Valentine, TX, came upon two men and an all-terrain vehicle. The hunters asked the men to sit down and wait while they notified the Border Patrol. When agents arrived, they discovered 399.1 pounds of marijuana in six large sugar sacks on the ATV. The two men were Mexican citizens in the country illegally. The marijuana is valued at $319,280.

In all three cases, the smugglers, the dope and their vehicles were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of the nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.