[420 Girl]

Local law enforcement officers are on heighten alert this time of year as the season for harvesting marijuana begins to take hold.

According to U.S. Border Patrol officials, October through early December is a time when drug dealers increase the movement of the product into the United States.

John Lopez, a USBP spokesman, said the Rio Grande Valley sector has been seeing an increase in marijuana traffic because of the harvest season for the illegal weed.

"Right now we're in the middle or the end of marijuana harvest season," Lopez said. "The same way farmers grow and harvest their crops, narcotics dealers have fields of marijuana hidden away and they harvest it the same way a farmer would."

The spokesman said the second reason for the added drug traffic relates to the success Mexican authorities have had in their war on drugs.

"The cartels feel threatened to lose what they have and take every chance to get past our border," Lopez said. "They try to get rid of their stored drugs and cross it rather than leave it stashed and run the risk of it being discovered by police or the army."

The increased traffic of narcotics has faced stiff opposition as border patrol agents have stepped up their presence with their Operation River Freedom Denial, he added.

Details of the operation were not available, but according to a press release from USBP it was responsible for the seizure of 10,165 pounds of marijuana from Oct. 19 to Nov. 15.

Lopez said that in past years, the majority of the drug traffic went through the western part of the Rio Grande Valley. However the crackdown has made drug smugglers deviate from their regular paths and instead utilize the eastern part of the Valley.

According to a press release, USBP has had 20 notable seizures, with 2,355 pounds seized by the Harlingen station, 6,465 pounds by the Brownsville station and 1,346 by the Fort Brown station.

Capt. Javier Reyna of the Cameron County Sheriff's Department said that while marijuana is a very common street drug, authorities see a seasonal increase and respond in kind.

"We do see an increase around this time and we step up our interdiction duties," Reyna said. "We have more patrols out and our narcotics units step up their efforts. Sometimes we get lucky and our seizures are in the tons."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Eduardo Perez said the agency doesn't differentiate between harvest season and other times of the year. It is vigilant at all times.

"We are looking for any kind of narcotics 24/7 year round," Perez said.

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