Friday, Jul 14, 2006
Four men – one from Fort Worth, Texas, and three from Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico – were arrested after rangers caught them smuggling more than 500 pounds of marijuana across Lake Amistad. A ranger became suspicious on June 22nd when he observed a group of people and a bass boat at the end of a dry cove on the west side of the lake near the U.S. Highway 90 bridge. The boaters were met at the shore by a dark-colored sport utility vehicle and the ranger saw the men loading bundles from the boat into the SUV. When the SUV left the area and pulled out onto Highway 90 going back toward Del Rio, he called for back-up and began following it. The SUV was stopped and the driver, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was detained. The back of the SUV was stuffed with several burlap sacks containing numerous “bricks” of marijuana, tightly wrapped in tape and plastic. The driver, Victor Manuel Huerta Acosta of Ciudad Acuña, was arrested. Other officers called to the scene detained three other men in a Champion bass boat. Arrested after the boat was stopped were Alfredo Moreno Gandana, 37, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Alberto Rodriguez Hernandez, 35, and Gerardo Rodarte Bernal, 38, both of Ciudad Acuña. The boat and the SUV were seized. The marijuana recovered from the back of the SUV weighed a total of 519.79 pounds. The case was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for prosecution. Rangers were assisted in the case by Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics officers and by Border Patrol and ICE agents. The seizure was the park’s second in June and the third of the year, bringing the total amount of marijuana recovered in Amistad so far this year to 1,415 pounds.
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