File photo of marijuana. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
SANTA TERESA, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers turned up more than 700 pounds of marijuana during a weekend stop at the Santa Teresa port of entry.
Officers found the 10 bales of tightly packed marijuana in metal boxes hidden under the bed of a Ford pickup truck that was crossing from Mexico on Saturday.
The driver, 55-year-old Jose Manuel Gomez Serrano, a legal resident of Portland, Ore., was turned over to immigration agents and arrested on federal smuggling charges.
Officers at the port had become suspicious and selected the man’s truck for a secondary inspection. An X-ray turned up anomalies in the appearance of the bed of the truck.
Port Director Joanne Thale-Lembo says the sophisticated method of concealing the drugs shows the extent to which smugglers will go to bring contraband into the U.S.
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

