[Sativa]

A 69-year-old man was arrested after officials say he tried to smuggle 70 pounds of marijuana into the country in hollowed out logs of wood.

The smuggling attempt occurred around 5:30 p.m. on Monday at the Sasabe port of entry, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Officers were conducting routine screening when the man — who resides in Sasabe, Sonora — arrived in a 1979 Ford F-250 loaded with cut firewood, the news release said.

The driver was questioned about his visit to the United States and his truck was inspected, the release said. The inspection prompted officers to conduct a more thorough search using a drug-sniffing dog named Judy who alerted officers to the odor of narcotics coming from the logs.

Officers drilled into a log and found marijuana stashed inside, the release said. All of the logs were broken apart and 41 packages of marijuana were found.

The marijuana, the truck and the wood were seized.

According to the news release, the last time smugglers tried to cleverly hide narcotics while going through the Sasabe port of entry was in February 2006.

At that time, officers found 34 pounds of marijuana inside sealed cans of jalapeños and in the sides of an ice chest.



News Hawk- User http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Arizona Daily Star
Author: Alexis Huicochea
Contact: http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/
Copyright: Arizona Daily Star
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