In The News

Pot bust points to flaws in cross-border trucking

Critics of the recently announced cross-border trucking program have warned that opening the border would invite drug smuggling and cabotage into the U.S.

On the very day that President Barack Obama and Mexico President Felipe Calderon announced that a cross-border trucking program is imminent, a major drug bust in Arizona did little to bolster arguments that Mexican trucks won’t bring problems with them.

Thursday, March 3, an Arizona state trooper stopped a truck driven by a Mexican male in his 20s hauling produce on Interstate 19 from Nogales, AZ, to Phoenix.

The driver was unlicensed to drive a commercial vehicle, and troopers noticed several other violations, which “showed that the driver was not familiar with legitimate commercial vehicle operations,” an Arizona Department of Public Safety news release stated.

Inside the trailer, troopers found a hidden compartment with 152 bundles of marijuana totaling 3,616 pounds and worth about $1.2 million on the street.

According to the DOT number on the truck, the truck was registered under Luz Belem Robles Carrillo of Sonora, Mexico. The carrier had been recently issued provisional authority to operate only along the border in specific commercial zones identified by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The type of authority the carrier was issued is classified as OP-2. Carriers with OP-2 authority may operate in border zones in the U.S. in states that border Mexico.

Carriers can only have one type of authority. Carriers that want to engage in long-haul transportation and business in the border commercial zones must apply for the OP-1.

Since being issued that provisional authority in October 2010, the motor carrier had tallied only one inspection, according to FMCSA’s website.

The Mexican motor carrier with the same DOT number was inspected in December and was found to have eight violations. The violations included: no drivers record of duty status, driving a CMV while disqualified, no medical certificate, two counts of operating a CMV without periodic inspection, wheel flaps missing or defective, glazing permits, and state or international fuel tax violation.

Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, told Land Line Now Wednesday that investigators believe the truck’s driver had been recently hired by a Mexican drug cartel.

DPS officers ask questions of drivers to determine whether drivers are legitimate professionals and whether they can safely operate a truck.

“If he doesn’t know how his own truck works, and if he doesn’t know about logs, it would indicate to us he is a recent hire by the drug cartels to transport this cargo,” Graves told Land Line Now . “That’s how we felt about this guy, that he was just hired to do that. We don’t think he was a professional driver.”

The driver, who was arrested near the U.S.-Mexico border, is working with authorities and remains in custody, Graves said.

Arizona DPS did not say whether the truck was associated with the drug cartel or had been hijacked.

Graves said in recent years cartels have increasingly paid individuals to courier drugs from various points through drug trafficking networks.

“They will pay $5,000 to rent a car and transport drugs to folks like this gentlemen, who are driving commercial vehicles disguised as legitimate loads when in fact they’re carrying an enormous amount of drugs,” Graves said. “It shows a level of desperation by the cartels to get their product into this country. What they don’t plan on is we are on to them and we have special interdiction units specifically looking for this type of operation.”

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