About 1,400 pounds of marijuana was discovered stashed away in a built-in compartment underneath the deack of a 28-foot fishing boat. Officials pulled over the boat in its smuggling attempt on Monday.

Federal agents on patrol around the marine by the U.S.-Mexico border saw the boat, called the “Oh Yeah,” at 5 p.m. and stopped it for customs boarding, reported Jacqueline Dizdul, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Agents searched the boat and found the secret compartment hidden in the cabin of the boat and within it 291 plastic-wrapped packages of marijuana with an estimated street value of  $700,000, Dizdul stated.

The only person in the boat was a 47-year-old U.S. citizen. He was handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who took away the boat and the drugs.

A Chula Vista resident was taken into custody at a rest stop alongside Interstate 5 on Camp Pendleton after he was discovered to be transporting 230 pounds of marijuana in his car. Border Patrol stopped the man and pressed smuggling charges. 

An officer at the rest stop saw the man performing behaviors out of the norm and searched his vehicle to find 46 packages of marijuana stashed in the trunk of the car, the Border Patrol reported. 

The agent took the man in handcuffs and confiscated the drugs. The amount of drugs is estimated to be worth $115,090, the Border Patrol informed. The man and the drugs were handed over to the Drug Enforcement Administration to be dealt with further.

A 20-year-old Mexican citizen was taken into custody on Monday by U.S. Border Patrol agents after he was charged with attempt of transporting marijuana illegally by hiding it in the tires of a Ford Explorer vehicle.

Agents pulled the man over around 5 p.m. as he was traveling west on Interstate 8 near the Buckman Springs Road exit. They searched the vehicle and its tires, which seemed to show evidence that they had been messed with.

A Border Patrol K-9 team sniffed the car and signaled to officials that there was something in the tires. Officials opened the tires to find marijuana hidden inside a metal ring inside.

Agents discovered 16 bundles of marijuana weighing over100 pounds with an estimated street value of over $51,000.

The driver was taken into custody and handed over to a multiagency anti-drug task force.

A man charged of being a huge marijuana transporter and seller from Mexico to the United States was sentenced Friday to 11 years and three months in prison.

Fidel Chan Amador, 42, who lived in Mexicali, pleaded guilty in November to planning to transport thousands of pounds of marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Chan was indicted in San Diego in 1999, where he stayed for the majority of his time until he was taken into custody in Mexicali in November 2005 on Mexican charges of murder, kidnapping and organized crime. He detained in jail in Mexico City until he was sent to the U.S. for the rest of his criminal process.

He is charged with planning to transport large shipments of marijuana through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry from 1996 to 1999, federal authorities reported.

Chief U.S. District Judge Irma E. Gonzalez also sentenced Chan on Friday to receive five years of probation after he serves his jail sentence.

Chan’s sister, Lilia Chan Amador, is another player in the conspiracy incident. She was found guilty in federal court of making payoffs to help promote the distribution of marijuana.

Border Patrol agents confiscated over 20 pounds of metamphetamine with a value of $375,000 and took a man into custody in Boulevard, officials reported Wednesday.

The man was traveling in a 1999 Ford F-150 headed west on Interstate 8 around 4:30 a.m. Monday when officials came up behind the car and the driver suddenly stopped on the side of the road by Canebrake Road, officials with the Border Patrol stated.

He informed agents that he was having car issues.  

Agents became suspicious after they talked to the man because he kept giving the same answers so they requested  a K-9 to search the vehicle and the dog sensed there were drugs in the vehicle, the Border Patrol stated.

Agents looked through the car and discovered 19 bundles hidden in a compartment behind the passenger seat.

The driver, a 21-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested and the drugs were handed over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Border authorities reported Sunday that they found and confiscated over 6,000 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $5.9 million and took a truck driver into custody when they discovered the drugs hidden in a boxes filled with door knobs. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers took away the drugs around 7 p.m. Friday at the Calexico Port of Entry’s secondary cargo inspection area.

A group of dogs signaled to officers showing that there could possibly be drugs within the 1998 trailer. Officers searched the trailer to discover 458 wrapped packages of marijuana hidden in 67 cardboard boxes.

The driver, said to be a Mexicali male in his 30’s, was taken into custody and handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for them to interrogate him about the situation.

A U.S. citizen, living in Tijuana, was taken into custody Wednesday after officials at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry discovered 20 packages of marijuana stashed inside two garden-hose reels he was transporting in is truck along with his landscaping tools.

The man pulled up to the border checkpoint around 4 a.m., and a drug-sniffing dog became suspicious of the truck, signaling to officials to come check, reported Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Officers searched the car to discover the 85 pounds of  marijuana, with a street value of $85,000, stored inside the reels in the bed of his truck.  

The man was taken into custody and sent to stay at the San Diego County jail.

 A San Ysidro man was taken into custody Thursday after Border Patrol agents intercepted the driver on Interstate 5 in San Clemente, just north of San Diego County, and discovered 15 pounds of methamphetamine stashed behind the driver’s seat of his pickup truck, authorities reported.

Agents pulled over the driver in his Dodge Durango traveling north on the freeway near the Avenida Magdelena exit around 11:15 a.m. and asked if they could investigate his truck, the Border Patrol stated.

The 27-year-old man, a Mexican citizen with a legal residential card, allowed the officials to proceed. Agents discovered 12 bundles of methamphetamine hidden in a black duffel bag behind his seat and took him into custody for drug smuggling. The drugs are estimated to be worth $350,000.

A previous high-ranked lieutenant in the Arellano Félix drug organization entered a guilty plea to charges of racketeering and conspiracy in federal court Monday, the most recent in a line of former top officials in the drug gang to plead guilty. 

Efraín Pérez admitted to one account of racketeering and another of conspiracy to use and put money in illegal drug profits and selling. According to court records, Pérez worked as Ismael Higuera Guerrero’s most trusted assistant. Guerrero was the head of the drug cartel. 

Both Pérez and Guerrero were to blame for starting and organizing huge drug shipments leaving Mexico and destined for the US by passing through Tijuana, and they strongly pushed for gang violence in order to be in charge of smuggling in Tijuana and Ensenada.  

Late Friday afternoon Armando Martínez Duarte also admitted he was guilty to charges of racketeering. He was the head of security for the group at the same time that he was working as a federal law enforcement officer in Mexico. He enforced policies in the organization’s name in Mexicali without mercy for others, he is believed to have approved and enforced the torture and murder of many people.

Also last week, Jesús “Chuy” Labra Aviles, another older top official admitted he was guilty.  

All four could possibly be sentenced to serve up to 30 years in prison.