LOS ANGELES: US
Customs officers have seized nearly four tons of marijuana worth $2.3 million
hidden in a consignment of jalapeno peppers. A sniffer dog alerted officers to
a trailer with a shipment of peppers in San Diego on the border with Mexico on
Thursday, Customs and Border Protection said.

The CBP statement
said "a 37-year-old male Mexican citizen entered the port of entry driving
a tractor pulling a trailer with cargo manifested as jalapeno peppers."
Officers at Otay Mesa cargo facility found 314 packages of marijuana weighing
7,560 pounds (3.4 tons) mixed among the jalapeno peppers. "I am proud of
the officers for seizing this significant marijuana load," said Otay Mesa
Port director Rosa Hernandez.

It was the second
large haul of marijuana at the facility in days. Officers seized 10,642 pounds
of the drug in a shipment of plastic auto parts at Otay Mesa on Tuesday. CBP
has seized 113 tons (103 tons) of marijuana so far this year, along with 41
tons of cocaine and 27 tons of methamphetamine. In July authorities seized
nearly 20 tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of more than $1
billion from a ship at the port of Philadelphia in one of the largest drug
busts in US history. - AFP