A truck driver caught at a border crossing with thousands of pounds worth of marijuana in his truck says that cartel members were to blame.
The drugs were discovered around 2:45 p.m. on October 8 at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas, according to a report from the Laredo Morning Times.
Forty-five year old truck driver Hector Manuel Diaz-Cardenas arrived at the World Trade Bridge hauling a load of kitchen stoves and was referred for a secondary inspection. X-ray technology revealed bundles of marijuana hidden in the legitimate cargo.
Inspectors discovered 181 bundles of marijuana weighing 4,858 pounds with an approximate street value of $3,886,400.
When Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrived at the scene, Diaz-Cardenas told them that he’d arrived for work in Nuevo Laredo and was told to go to a warehouse to pick up his truck. When he arrived at that warehouse, he said that he was directed to a second warehouse location, where he was able to pick up his assigned semi truck and started for a destination in the U.S.
Then, according to the arrest affidavit, “As he was driving toward the port of entry, Diaz-Cardenas claimed that he was intercepted by suspected members of a drug cartel. As per Diaz-Cardenas, the cartel members escorted him to a truck yard in Nuevo Laredo, where he was told to park his truck tractor and leave.”
Diaz-Cardenas says he returned to his truck about 90 minutes later and continued on to the World Trade Bridge.
Diaz-Cardenas was arrested and charged with Import, Attempt to Import, and Conspire to Import a Controlled Substance.