Canadian truck stopped in Detroit with $626,000 worth of marijuana
U.S. border officers doing a routine check of a Canadian truck found 156 pounds of marijuana hidden in a shipment of frozen vegetables.
The weed was worth about $626,000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“This is a very significant marijuana seizure,” said Acting Detroit Port Director John Nowak. “Extreme lengths were used in an attempt to conceal this shipment. I commend the CBP officers involved in making this seizure and stopping this shipment of drugs from reaching our streets.”
CBP said the driver, a 62-yearold Canadian, crossed the Ambassador Bridge on Nov. 1. He had a shipment of frozen vegetables destined for Chicago.
Officers sent the shipment for a “routine enforcement check,” which included an Xray scan.
The X-ray scan was inconclusive, so officers opened the truck and visually inspected the 29 pallets. They found 134 packages of marijuana mixed in with the vegetables.
Officers arrested the driver and turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The driver was not charged and was returned to Canada.
“There is no information for us to believe that he was in any way involved in this,” CBP Chief Ken Hammond told a news conference in the parking lot of the customs truck inspection area next to the bridge.
They also seized the truck and the marijuana, which was put on display for the media.
Hammond said the truck was owned by a Canadian company, but would not say which one.
He referred questions on the investigation to Khaalid Walls of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said no charges have been laid and the seizure remains under investigation.
The hometown of the driver was not released.
Hammond said the seizure is a substantial one.
“In terms of recent seizures it ranks up there simply because of the method it was concealed,” said Hammond.
“Trying to find a load of marijuana or any other illicit contraband in frozen vegetables is a job and a task in itself. So it ranks up there in terms of actually finding it.”