Record-breaking pot bust: 15 tons hidden in mattress shipment

OTAY MESA, Calif., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Some 15 tons of marijuana worth nearly $19 million was discovered stacked inside a tractor-trailer that claimed to be hauling mattresses, trying to get through the Otay Mesa border crossing.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents found 1,296 tightly wrapped packages containing 31,598 pounds of marijuana stacked floor to ceiling inside the trailer amid a few mattresses. It's the largest narcotics bust at the California cargo port and second largest nationwide.

The driver, identified as Martin Martinez-Penaflor, 46, was alone when he drove in to the commercial port about 6 p.m. When officers used an X-ray exam to see inside the truck, they saw "an anomaly." The truck was moved to another area, where the trailer door was opened and the pot was discovered.

"Almost the entire trailer was filled with those packages from floor to ceiling, front to back, although there were a few mattresses stacked along the wall at the opposite end of the trailer from the doors," the Border Patrol said in a written statement

Martinez-Penaflor was booked into the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. He reportedly told authorities he was offered $50,000 to smuggle the marijuana from Tijuana to Burbank.