Nearly 950 Pounds of Liquid Meth Found Hidden in Truck Fuel Tank
A CBP officer spotted a white crystalline substance on a fuel tank, leading to the discovery of nearly 950 pounds of liquid meth hidden inside a big rig at Otay Mesa.
A routine inspection at the Otay Mesa Import Cargo Facility turned into one of the region's largest drug seizures on record when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer spotted a white, crystalline substance on top of a commercial tractor-trailer's fuel tank just before 11:30 a.m. on March 2, killing any chance the shipment had of crossing into the United States.
What officers found inside the 2019 big rig's tank was not fuel. Nearly 944.90 pounds of liquid methamphetamine had been packed into the tank, filling it completely. The tank appeared full during the inspection, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, but it was carrying narcotics, not diesel.
The truck's driver, a 26-year-old man from Tijuana, told officers he had agreed to leave the vehicle in a parking lot in Otay Mesa in exchange for $1,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in San Diego federal court. He has since been charged with a federal drug importation offense.
The seizure, reported by multiple outlets as nearly 950 or nearly 1,000 pounds depending on rounding, represents an exceptionally large single haul of liquid methamphetamine at the southern border. The U.S. Attorney's Office, which issued a statement on the case, placed the official figure at 944 pounds, while NBC 7 San Diego reported the more precise measurement of 944.90 pounds from official sources.
The Otay Mesa Import Cargo Facility sits at one of the busiest commercial crossing points along the U.S.-Mexico border, processing thousands of commercial shipments daily. The discovery underscores how smugglers have adapted concealment methods to exploit the functional components of commercial vehicles, using the fuel tank itself as the vessel for contraband rather than hidden compartments or cargo loads.
No additional arrests were announced in connection with the shipment as of the criminal complaint's filing, and the driver's name has not been publicly released by federal authorities.
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