poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
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Tonnes of marijuana found floating off California
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-22/tonnes-of-marijuana-found-floating-off-california/4025016
More than 3,500 kilograms of marijuana has been found bobbing in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, on a maritime smuggling route increasingly used by Mexican drug traffickers.
It is one of the largest known seizures of its kind.
The United States Coast Guard received a call on Sunday about suspicious bales spotted floating about 19 kilometres off the coast of Orange County, south of Los Angeles.
The Coast Guard, Orange County Sheriff's Department and Border Patrol responded and recovered 180 bales of marijuana weighing 3,660 kilograms.
"This is unusual, you don't usually find a large quantity of marijuana like that," said Jerry Conlin, a spokesman for Border Patrol's San Diego sector.
"There was a search launched immediately after finding such a large quantity to make sure that there wasn't an overturned or a sunken vessel, but none were found."
The California coastal strip has become a common corridor for Mexican smugglers who, trying to beat beefed up security on the land borders, haul marijuana and even illegal immigrants north by sea from Mexico in fishing boats.
While tossing drug loads is common off the Caribbean coast of Central America, where traffickers in fast boats frequently hurl cocaine loads into the sea when challenged by the US Coast Guard, finding such a large load is a rare event in California waters.
"It's not the first time that we have seen marijuana in the ocean," Mr Conlin said.
"But typically it might be either just to lighten up a load because they are trying to abscond ... or (they leave it) for someone else to pick it up.
"But to find such a large quantity like this is very rare."
Along the coast of Central America, fishermen-turned-beach-combers occasionally get rich from finding tossed cocaine loads, which they call "white lobster".
But Mr Conlin says there have been no reports of pot washing up on California beaches.
"It's believed that they recovered all the bundles that were out there," he said.
It is one of the largest known seizures of its kind.
The United States Coast Guard received a call on Sunday about suspicious bales spotted floating about 19 kilometres off the coast of Orange County, south of Los Angeles.
The Coast Guard, Orange County Sheriff's Department and Border Patrol responded and recovered 180 bales of marijuana weighing 3,660 kilograms.
"This is unusual, you don't usually find a large quantity of marijuana like that," said Jerry Conlin, a spokesman for Border Patrol's San Diego sector.
"There was a search launched immediately after finding such a large quantity to make sure that there wasn't an overturned or a sunken vessel, but none were found."
The California coastal strip has become a common corridor for Mexican smugglers who, trying to beat beefed up security on the land borders, haul marijuana and even illegal immigrants north by sea from Mexico in fishing boats.
While tossing drug loads is common off the Caribbean coast of Central America, where traffickers in fast boats frequently hurl cocaine loads into the sea when challenged by the US Coast Guard, finding such a large load is a rare event in California waters.
"It's not the first time that we have seen marijuana in the ocean," Mr Conlin said.
"But typically it might be either just to lighten up a load because they are trying to abscond ... or (they leave it) for someone else to pick it up.
"But to find such a large quantity like this is very rare."
Along the coast of Central America, fishermen-turned-beach-combers occasionally get rich from finding tossed cocaine loads, which they call "white lobster".
But Mr Conlin says there have been no reports of pot washing up on California beaches.
"It's believed that they recovered all the bundles that were out there," he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-22/tonnes-of-marijuana-found-floating-off-california/4025016
