Bicyclist busted with pot in tires at San Ysidro border crossing

To the uninitiated eye, the 18-year-old man with the dark mountain bike could have passed for another bicyclist crossing the busy border checkpoint at San Ysidro.

But in fact, federal authorities said, the man was allegedly involved in an unusual smuggling attempt: His tires were filled with plastic bags of marijuana.

As the man crossed the pedestrian checkpoint from Tijuana last week, customs officers felt something unusual when they squeezed the bike tires, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.

The officers ran the bike through an X-ray machine and found packages filled with 2.5 pounds of marijuana. The drugs' value was estimated at  $1,300, the Homeland Security department said.

The biker was described as a U.S. citizen who lives in Tijuana. He was being held at San Diego county jail, the department said. His name was not released.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Bike with marijuana hidden in tires. Credit: Department of Homeland Security

Comments

[jose medina]

Old news...happened a while back.

[Daniel]

Legalize it...........

[My opinon means nothing]

That pot was probably heading to an illegal store. Legalizing pot is not the answer. There would still be just as many deadly Mexican drug cartels and just as many people dying here and in Mexico. Nobody would win. No manmade government is going to solve this problem.

[your opinion DOES mean nothing]

No "my opinion means nothing" legalizing pot WOULD cut down on drug murders. The trade would be regulated and taxed. Prescription drugs are legal. Cigarettes are legal. Man, those Mexican Cigarette Cartels are killing so many people!

[kuruc]

don't legalize it but don't enforce it. let people commit hari-kari. it's their life.

[Johnny]

Prohibition worked so well for Alcohol we should keep cannabis illegal. There is more money to be made that way.

[gwadzilla]

I wonder if this was his first attempt across the border...

I wonder if this is a popular smuggling technique....

I wonder what his penalty will be in these changing times...

[tatergun]

Its funny how all the potheads are trying to use the excuse of less killings if pot was legalized. But honestly Mexican cigarette cartels, AKA DRUG CARTELS, would find some other reason to kill people. Violent people stop killing because pot was legalized? They would probably murder you for your money or some other reason. Bottom line, its how they make their living. But I guess people miss things like that when dealing with a drug addiction? Too worried about making it easy to get what they want.

[JA]

A guy riding his bike across the border with a few bags of weed stuffed into the tires is not a professional smuggler, and probably not even a dealer.
Just a guy that went to Mexico to buy some weed for himself and his friends. Probably happens hundreds of times per day.

The most surprising thing about this story, is that the government always grossly overstates the "street value" of the drugs that they sieze. In this case, $1300 for 2.5 lbs was probably accurate when Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were buying "grass" by the "lid".
More like $13,000 nowadays.

[Paul R.]

How does anybody propose to "regulate and tax" something that you can grow in your basement or backyard?

[hahah this is great]

dear paul,

take some time out of your day today and visit your local grocery store.
go to the section with all the fruits and vegetables.
now, how many of those things can you grow in your backyard?
do they not already regulate and tax ALL of those products already?
you can brew your own beer too! i dont see people going around and getting killed for alcohol. maybe thats because we released the prohibition, which stimulated our economy enough to get us out of the depression, and you could go to your local pub and easily get a drink.

the money that could be made from taxation of marijuana is more then corn and wheat taxes already makes. legalizing it would allow the United States to grow, cultivate, and distribute on our own, therefore negating any need to get it from or support drug cartels in mexico or anywhere else.

people get killed everyday for theft and robbery. we should just allow people to take whatever they want, from whomever they want, for sake of saving lives.
genius!

[My opinon means nothing]

I stand by my previous comment on this issue. If pot legallizied, who would provide it? Federal? State? Local? NO! They don't want to have anything to do with it! The Mexican government? NOT A CHANCE! It couldn't even be regulated! And the drug cartels would keep up their turf wars and keep killing anybody who got in their way. No manmade government is going to solve this or any of the problems we have today.