Moving drugs through highways used by oil workers and hiding drugs within oilfield equipment appears to be a new strategy being used by drug traffickers seeking to move large narcotic loads to northern cities. Earlier this week, Texas State Troopers arrested Carlos Lozano, a Mexican national who had been driving a tractor trailer loaded with more than 4,030 pounds of marijuana. The drug seizure occured just west of the border city of Roma, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed.
The arrest came after a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) sergeant conducting an inspection on Lozano’s truck began to notice various inconsistencies in his story, his log book and his cargo. The sergeant began to look more into the cargo after discovering it showed signs of recent tampering and the fact that the history being given by Lozano was not factually accurate. He became more suspicious about possible contraband inside. Following up on his suspicion, the trooper poked a hole into one of the pieces of equipment with a drill and found marijuana inside.
Overall, DPS troopers ended up finding 174 marijuana bundles hidden inside the equipment that had been loaded into the tractor trailer. During questioning, Lozano told agents that he was planning to drive to Carrizo Springs, an area with heavy oil equipment traffic. His intent was to avoid major U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints and blend with the heavy machinery traffic. His journey would have eventually led him to Houston where he would be paid about $40,000.
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