U. S. Customs and Border Protection officers found cocaine hidden in a load of decorative stone.
On January 11, 2023, at about 11:23 p.m., a tractor trailer loaded with a shipment manifested as decorative stone, entered the Tecate Cargo Facility. During the inspection, a CBP officer referred the driver and truck to secondary inspection. CBP officers randomly offloaded some of the stone and discovered an anomaly in the stone. A CBP K-9 team alerted to the shipment and a thorough inspection was performed. Officers found approximately 256 pounds of cocaine hidden in the load. The cocaine has a street value of about $4.1 million. The driver, a Mexican citizen, was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.