U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped a load of 71 pounds of heroin last week.

On Wednesday night, agents assigned to the San Clemente Border Patrol State stopped a vehicle northbound on Interstate 5. A K-9 unit alert to the vehicle and a search of the trunk uncovered the narcotics concealed in a cardboard box. The heroin weighed over 71 pounds and has a street value estimated at nearly $300,000. The driver, a Mexican national, was turned over to Orange County Sheriff's Department.