May 22, 2007 in City

Ecstasy bust nets 262,000 pills in truck

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Day after day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents search through cars and trucks headed into America, most often coming up empty-handed.

But late last week, officers made a discovery that is providing a morale boost to agents across the international border: 262,000 tablets of the illicit club drug Ecstasy, secreted away in hidden compartments in a semitrailer’s doors. Authorities estimate the street value at $5.2 million.

Officers were doing a routine search of a semitruck headed from Canada into the United States at the Oroville crossing Friday and used an X-ray machine to peer into the walls of the vehicle, Border Patrol spokesman Mike Milne said.

They saw something peculiar in the back doors of the trailer, and after officers probed further, they found more than 262,000 pills of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine – commonly known as Ecstasy – in plastic bags in the doors.

The man and woman driving the truck said they were unaware of their cargo’s illicit nature, Milne said. Often semitruck drivers will pick up an already loaded trailer and haul it to wherever the customer directs them. This trailer was headed for California.

U.S. Border patrol agents are working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the investigation, Milne said.

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