see also: in July 2005 Press Releases:   Companies Using Wood Packaging Material to Import Their Goods: Enforcement Begins on September 16   CBP Border Patrol Agents Intercept Drug Cache   CBP Border Patrol Agents Find 74 Pounds of Cocaine   CBP Border Patrol Finds Smuggling Victim Abandoned in Desert   Millennium Bomber Sentenced to 22 Years   Container Security Initiative Port of Kaohsiung is Operational ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

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Marfa, TX – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol Agents with the assistance of National Park Rangers arrested two men in a van containing 3,144 pounds of marijuana worth $2,515,984 last week.

The arrests occurred about 7 p.m. on July 21, 2005, near the intersection of Glenn Springs Road and Park Route 12, south of Panther Junction. The 1987 Ford Van contained 46 bales in sugar sacks and 159 plastic wrapped bundles of marijuana. The driver and the passenger were both U.S. Citizens with Odessa, Texas, addresses. Three other people, a woman and two men, all U.S. Citizens and also from Odessa were arrested as possible accessories to the smuggling effort and their vehicle was seized. All five individuals, the two vehicles and the drugs were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration for prosecution.

CBP Border Patrol Agents of the Marfa Sector have seized over 51,000 pounds of marijuana valued at over $4 million and a total of approximately $46 million in narcotics in calendar year 2005 to date. Agents of the Marfa Sector have also apprehended 6,703 illegal aliens during the same time period.

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 our 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.