The Associated Press LOCKPORT, Ill. (March 13, 2001 12:07 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - About 14,000 pounds of marijuana was found hidden behind pallets of jalapeno peppers in a semitrailer parked near a community southwest of Chicago, police said Monday. Illinois State Police estimated the street value of the marijuana, seized Friday, at $20 million. "The sheer quantity of the cannabis was the most that many experienced drug agents have ever seen in one place," Illinois State Police director Sam Nolen said in a written statement. The truck was registered in Texas. Police had not found the driver and made no arrests in the case as of Monday. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500462908-500706174-503868198-0,00.html
Marijuana haul sets U.S. record; 7 tons CHICAGO -- The truck was supposed to be carrying seven tons of jalapeno peppers, but Rocco, the drug-sniffing dog, knew immediately that the produce was not intended for salsa. Instead, police said they found 14,000 pounds of marijuana hidden behind two pallets of outdated hot peppers in a semitrailer parked next to a Bolingbrook truck stop. The site has become a well-used transfer station for Chicago-bound drug shipments from the U.S.-Mexico border. No arrests have been made and the truck's driver has not been found, police said Monday. They believe the truck may have been parked at the Pace bus service lot on Thursday. The trailer and tractor belong to a Dallas-area trucking firm, and both are registered in Texas. The truck's records identify it as carrying about 14,000 pounds of peppers. The truck's cargo was the largest single seizure of marijuana inside the U.S. border in history, said Dan Kent, deputy director of the Illinois State Police. A 12,000-pound seizure in Florida in 1995 was the second largest, he said, and the state police's Narcotics and Currency Interdiction Team seized about 18,000 pounds of marijuana over all of last year. The 175 boxes of marijuana, which authorities had to cart to the Illinois State Police headquarters warehouse in Springfield because there was too much to store locally, was valued at $20 million, Kent said. "That's $20 million in dope that won't go onto our streets and affect our communities," he said. The truck was parked in a Pace bus lot next to a truck stop at Interstate Highway 55 and Illinois Highway 53 in Bolingbrook, said Lt. Carl Dobrich, commanding officer of the Narcotics and Currency Interdiction Team. Drug enforcement agencies have been paying increasing attention to the truck stop over the last couple of years after seizing other multimillion-dollar drug shipments there, Dobrich said. A shipment seized in January 2000 was disguised as a load of cabbage, and one a month earlier was disguised as garlic. Investigators found the trailer Friday as they were making a regular patrol of the area, Dobrich said. Several irregularities drew investigators' attention: First, the truck was parked in a Pace lot, where it did not belong, he said, and second, the truck was unattended but the trailer's refrigeration unit was left running. The Texas registration also fit the profile of a drug shipment, he said. The Romeoville Police Department's drug-sniffing dog Rocco was brought in and gave indications he smelled drugs, police said. Police received permission from the Will County state's attorney's office to cut the trailer's large commercial lock on the back door, Dobrich said. The Bolingbrook Fire Department needed special equipment to cut it. Inside the trailer, police found two pallets loaded with white boxes of jalapenos at the end of the truck. But behind the peppers they found the rest of the 48-foot-long trailer loaded with marijuana, compressed and shrink-wrapped in bricks of varying sizes and packed in cardboard boxes. The truck's cargo was the second drug shipment investigators have intercepted in the area near I-55 and Illinois 53 this year, Dobrich said. In 2000, they seized eight to 10 drug shipments in the area, which is crowded with trucking terminals and light industrial development. Truck stops there have become popular transfer points for narcotics traffic from the southern border states, he said. Drivers bring the semis as far as Bolingbrook and then leave them there and return south. Another driver picks up the truck and takes it into Chicago, where the drugs are distributed. Some of the drugs stay in Chicago, and some are shipped to other cities, including on the East Coast. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,38000000000104757,00.html