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Marfa, Tex. – Border Patrol agents from the Marfa Sector seized a combined 2,879 pounds of marijuana in three separate incidents over the weekend.

The largest load was found about 1 a.m. Sunday when a Florida man driving an 18-wheeler tried to get through the Sierra Blanca Checkpoint on Interstate 10. A Border Patrol K-9 alerted to the possibility of contraband in the trailer of the vehicle. Further inspection uncovered 2,328 pounds of marijuana in cellophane bundles in a load of lettuce. The driver and a passenger were both legal resident aliens from Nicaragua currently residing in Florida. The street value of the marijuana is $1,862,400.

Friday afternoon, Alpine Station Border Patrol agents were alerted to footprints in an area near Elephant Mountain, south of Alpine. Agents followed the footprints and other signs for four hours before they spotted four men with large white sugar sacks in an arroyo. The sacks had been fashioned into backpacks. The smugglers, all illegal aliens, tried to hide the sacks and themselves when they heard the agents approaching. All four men were arrested and 213 pounds of marijuana, valued at more than $170,000 was seized.

Agents assigned to the Sanderson Border Patrol Station seized more than 200 pounds of marijuana after they were notified of a suspicious vehicle dropping off some individuals on the side of the road. The agents located the vehicle near Dryden, Tex. The driver, a U.S. Citizen, was arrested after the agents found 238 pounds of marijuana inside the 1997 Suburban. The drugs have a street value of more than $190,000. The individuals reportedly dropped off earlier were not located.

In all three cases, the smugglers, the vehicles and the drugs 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 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.