Agents make multi-million dollar pot busts
By: Jeorge Zarazua
Del Rio News-Herald
U.S. Border Patrol agents made a record marijuana seizure this weekend near Catarina, one of two major busts that led them to seize more marijuana in a two-hour period than any other day in the history of the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, authorities announced Monday.
The busts Saturday netted more than nine tons of marijuana from two 18-wheelers traveling on FM 2688 near Catarina, a small town about 20 miles southeast of Carrizo Springs in Dimmitt County.
One of the trucks was carrying 11,973 pounds of marijuana hidden inside large metal tanks. The other truck concealed 6,692 pounds inside pallets of industrial lime bags. The two marijuana seizures have a combined street value of nearly $15 million, said Border Patrol spokesman Dennis Smith.
Smith said the trucks attempted to blend in with other commercial traffic created in the area by the Eagle Ford Shale gas exploration boom. “It is a remote area and a few years ago, you wouldn’t have had the traffic that you do now,” he said.
Smith said agents assigned to the Carrizo Springs Border Patrol Station stopped the two trucks about two hours apart Saturday morning. It was immediately unknown if the illegal shipments were onnected. “Not only is this the most marijuana seized in a single day in sector history, the 11,973-pound load is the largest seizure on record for Del Rio Sector,” said Acting Chief Patrol Agent Dean Sinclair of the Del Rio Sector.
The record bust was made about 8:20 a.m. Saturday, when an agent patrolling FM 2688 stopped a 2000 Kenworth truck loaded with two large metal tanks.
After a canine alerted to the possible presence of contraband, agents conducted an intensive search and found 580 bundles of marijuana inside the tanks, Smith said. The trucks driver, Arvin Fred Barber, 48, from the South Texas town of San Diego, was arrested.
About two hours later, an agent patrolling in the same area stopped a 1994 Mack flatbed trailer loaded with pallets containing sacks of industrial lime, Smith said.
After a canine alerted to the trailer, agents discovered the stacks of lime bags were hollowed out to conceal plywood compartments containing bundles of marijuana, he said. Agents recovered 460 marijuana bundles, totaling 6,692 pounds, and arrested the driver, Willie Miller Pattillo III, 50, of Quinlan, authorities said. Quinlan is a town east of Dallas. The two suspects, both U.S. citizens, were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration along with the marijuana and trucks.
(Reach Jeorge Zarazua at 775-1551 or at jzarazua@delrionewsherald.com)
Reprinted by permission of the Del Rio News-Herald.
