5 on Beach Booked After Drug Found
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The five young adults walking on the beach Saturday afternoon at Border Field State Park near the Mexican border had all the gear necessary for a day at the beach: surfboards, towels and coolers--presumably filled with beer and soft drinks.
But somehow, the scene was far too pat for two U.S. Border Patrol officers, who routinely check the area for undocumented aliens crossing from Mexico, said Ed Pyeatt, a patrol spokesman.
Instead, the officers found that the coolers contained 38 neatly wrapped bundles of marijuana, 70 pounds of it, Pyeatt said.
Booked into Metropolitan Correctional Center on suspicion of smuggling marijuana were Mark Matheson, Susan Hunt and Mark Seramur, all of San Diego; Isabel Valencia of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and Troy Campbell of Houston. Ages on the suspects were not known.
“Two of the guys even went out in the water and surfed a couple of waves before continuing down the beach,” Pyeatt said. “It was pretty clever.”
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