About 345 pounds of marijuana was seized by the Nebraska State Troopers on I-80 this 4th of July weekend. The three separate traffic stops occurred in Sarpy County, east of Grand Island and eastbound near Kearney.
On Thursday, July 3, 2008, a 1998 Honda Accord with Illinois plates was stopped for Following Too Close on eastbound I-80 near mm 437, in Sarpy County, Nebraska. The trooper’s K-9 indicated an odor of drugs coming from the vehicle. A search of the car led to the seizure of 220 lbs. of marijuana. The driver of the vehicle, 31-year-old Lazaro Cuen Alverez of San Jose, California and a passenger 30-year-old Gustavo Colunga Luna of Keizer, Oregon were both lodged in the Sarpy County Jail on charges of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Deliver.
On Friday, July 4, 2008, a grey 2001 GMC with Arizona plates for speeding on eastbound I-80 near mm 315 on I-80 just east of Grand Island, in Hall County, Nebraska. The trooper was given consent to search the vehicle. The search led to the seizure of 89.7 lbs. of marijuana. The driver of the vehicle, 69-year-old Aurelio Vergara of Glendale, Arizona and a passenger 59-year-old Maria Vergara also of Glendale, Arizona, were both lodged in the Hall County Jail on Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Deliver.
On Saturday, July 5, 2008, yielded 35 lbs of marijuana. A 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix was stopped for speeding near Kearney in Buffalo County, Nebraska. A NSP canine indicated the odor of drugs coming from the vehicle. A search of the car led to the seizure of 35 lbs. of marijuana. The driver of the vehicle, 26-year-old John Eisel the IV, of Rockville, Maryland was lodged in the Buffalo County Detention Center on a charge of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Deliver.
Why is eastbound so significant? Well, drug mules travel up through northbound routes and hit I-80 to drive east. Most drugs passing through on I-80 come from the Southwest (from Texas to California) headed for Chicago.
Many drugs are going to Chicago, but authorities along I-80 also have stopped traffickers heading to the East Coast and other cities such as Rockford, Ill., Detroit and Milwaukee.
Interstate I-80 is a major drug corridor for narcotics being shipped east from the West Coast. With the exception of Pottawattamie County in western Iowa, which had a large number of arrests and seizures in 2007, no other county along the 461-mile stretch from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Chicago have seen nearly as many drug seizures as Henry County, Ill.. In fact, more arrests occur there than in any other county along I-80 from Chicago to the Nebraska border.
Troopers have pulled bags of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, Ecstasy, methamphetamine and other drugs out of cars, semis and motor homes. It has been found in gas tanks, air filters, tires and various compartments.
The drugs state police see most often on the interstate are cocaine from Mexico and South America, marijuana from the West Coast, Mexico and Canada, and Ecstasy, Patterson said. They also have seen more methamphetamine from Mexico now that stricter state laws make it more difficult for local meth producers to get the ingredients they need.
At any rate, there is a lot of drug traffic on I-80 and only a small portion is intercepted. So, if 345 pounds represents only about 10% (this is probably a real conservative estimate) of the drug trafficked across I-80 in Nebraska within three days, then approximately 3,105 pounds (or about 1.5 tons) got through. Drug traffickers will sometimes have more than one vehicle carrying drugs on a run, so if one is stopped, the others will get through. On the other hand, most drug money seizures are in vehicles headed back west. Duh!
At the center of all this is the vicious Mexican drug cartels and illegal Hispanic aliens with ties to these gangs. Then we have the black and Hispanic gangs on the other end that are the primary distributors.
And if that isn’t bad enough, we have “un-American” U.S. citizens that continually enable these Mexican nationals and illegal aliens to go about their dirty work and muck-up our society all in the name of “open-borders”.
EDITORS NOTE: See World-Herald version and note that the WH didn’t indicate four of the five parties were of hispanic origin!
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