Four busts Friday net immigrants, pot in La Joya (The Monitor)

Four busts Friday net immigrants, pot in La Joya

March 9, 2009 - 8:46 AM
Jared Taylor
The Monitor

LA JOYA -- More than a dozen immigrants and nearly 900 pounds of marijuana were seized during four busts here on Friday.

The first incident occurred about 12:20 p.m. Friday. La Joya police officers were called out to investigate a report of suspicious persons at the Tierra Blanca subdivision near the intersection of Ebony Street and Palm Drive, said Officer Joe Cantu, a La Joya police spokesman.

Officers observed several people "running around" in the area, Cantu said. Four men and two women without immigration papers were arrested and turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol, which assisted with the call.

The second incident occurred about 9:42 p.m. Friday. An officer pulled over a maroon 2000 Chevrolet Impala on a traffic stop at the 300 block of East U.S. Highway 83 in La Joya, Cantu said. The car's driver and three passengers lacked immigration documentation and were arrested. The four people were turned over to Border Patrol custody.

About seven minutes later, at 9:49 p.m. Friday, officers made another traffic stop. Police pulled over a blue Ford Escort station wagon for a traffic violation on Ebony Street in the Tierra Blanca subdivision, Cantu said. Officers arrested four illegal immigrants and turned them over to Border Patrol.

The 14 immigrants arrested in Friday's three busts by La Joya police officers primarily came from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to La Joya police.

And at 10:59 p.m. Friday night, officers chased a 2000 Chevrolet van from U.S. Highway 83 into the Mesquite Estates neighborhood in La Joya, said Cantu.

The short chase ended after travelling about three blocks, when the van smashed into a tree and its driver took off on foot and got away from police, Cantu said. Inside the van was about 903 pounds of marijuana. The drugs were turned over to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force Saturday morning, Cantu said.