TUCSON, June 12 (UPI) -- Investigators say they used a mobile X-ray system to ferret out more than 3,000 pounds of marijuana hidden in a truckload of watermelons this week.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said in a written statement that the X-ray scanned the big rig late Wednesday at the Aqua Linda checkpoint near Tucson and spotted the pot bundles after a sniffer dog alerted on the trailer.
The illicit cargo hidden among the melons was valued at more than $2.5 million.
The seizure came on the same day other agents working the border spotted a suspicious pickup truck. After the driver fled on foot back into Mexico, the Dodge was found to be weighted down with approximately 2,500 pounds of marijuana valued at nearly $2 million.
The pickup was found to have been stolen.
The two seizures added to what has been a banner fiscal year for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. Agents in the sector have so far seized a Border Patrol record 830,000 pounds of marijuana.
