Over 5,000 pounds brought into Northern California Coast on a Panga
Eight of nine people arrested Friday in connection with an international marijuana smuggling attempt were arraigned Monday on charges of possession for sale and transportation of marijuana in San Mateo County, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
The nine defendants -- four of which are from Mexico, three from San Jose and two from San Diego -- were arrested after Homeland Security agents notified the county's Narcotics Task Force that marijuana "panga" boats might be landing off the coast.
The group was allegedly found transferring the pot into two vans at a San Mateo County state beach.
About 10:15 p.m., two large vans reportedly entered Año Nuevo State Beach and met the panga boat that came ashore there, Wagstaffe said.
The defendants are then alleged to have transferred 180 bales of marijuana from the boat into the van, Wagstaffe said.
As the van entered state Highway 1, country law enforcement agents stopped it and discovered 5,148 pounds of marijuana in the vehicle, with a street value of about $23 million, Wagstaffe said.
On the beach, agents found an inflatable raft, rain gear and cellphones. The panga boat was discovered adrift by a local fisherman and recovered by the Coast Guard.
The nine defendants are: Luis Farid Gonzalez, 20; Mario Gonzalez, 36; Juan Hernandez, 39; Juan Valdez Lopez, 50; Luis Espinoza Mendoza, 28; Estaban Flores Salazar, 39; Joan Sicairos, 19; Mark Richard Teixeira, 38; and Phin Yo Vorn, 33.
Eight of the nine defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday, and Mario Gonzalez was expected to enter a plea Tuesday.
This is not the first time the coast of San Mateo County was used by alleged smugglers bringing in drugs from south of the border.
In May, an abandoned boat and SUV that both contained marijuana were discovered on Pescadero State Beach by sheriff's deputies. At least 42 bales of the drug were discovered between the two vehicles.
In April, an empty and abandoned panga boat was discovered off the coast of Pescadero. No suspects were found at the time of those discoveries.
Note: Siskiyou_kid noted the 23M value estimate is ridiculously high. In checking current prices on Narco News, I found these prices for California. The increased activity in Northern California Coast, explains the slow down in Panga activity in SoCal.
U think??? That sounds stupid 23million, we had a seizure in calexico,ca port of entry the other and it was like 1500 pounds and it was like 1.2 million at that, someone needs to get their prices correct, shit sounds like they be charging astronomical prices and currently that swag weed ain't that expensive, it's like 200 a key in Mexico if that by far.
ReplyDeleteThe further up north the value goes up.
DeleteWhy do you automatically assume it is SWAG?
DeleteR u retarded? The further north you go the cheaper it is. I can buy high quality pounds for $1500 up there. $500 -$800 if they aren't as good. This pot was from Mexico so most likely it was swag. I will say the west coast mostly gets sinola cartel pot which tends to be way better than east coast zeta pot, but is still swag.
DeleteCause it comes in bales.
DeleteIt's shwagg
DeleteThe cartels have they're own supply of good decent marijuana, it's not all swhag you know, the majority is outdoor grown of course but they don't just settle with sending shit weed over all the time, this could have been a shipment of some very nice decent outdoor grown weed. Some top shelf
DeleteMaybe it was some dro grown in Mexico
DeleteThere is no Mexican dro. Mexicans can't make anything right including weed. OK maybe beer and tequila, but that's it. Have you ever smoked a Mexican cigarette, they taste like pencil shavings. Or a Mexican coke. They rot your teeth in ten minutes. Everything made in Mexico is crap. America grows killer outdoor weed. Wtf Mexico, can't you even get that right? Oh and what was your last invention? A stupid ball in a cup game. Really? Why waste your time and freedom bringing in garage to the great state of California? We already have more dro than we know what to do with. Viva Mendocino and Humboldt countries!!!
DeleteTalk about a Mexican basher. Who the fuck cares about the last thing Mexico invented . Do you mean Mendocino and Humboldt counties? Can't even spell right
DeleteSorry it's my spell check. It must have been invented in Mexico too.
DeleteThe cops always extremely exaggerate on their drug bust value. The way they value it, is if you were to break down a pound and sell each gram(weed) at like $50 dollars
ReplyDeleteThat shit weed ain't gonna even sell for 20 a gram
Deletehttp://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=378830
ReplyDelete_Fer M.
Check this out chivis I witnessed this go down..
I think the reason why law enforcement over estimates the value of any confiscated drug shipment is because they think the kilo or pound will be broken up and sold individually, 8th of an ounce or even $20 sacks. So if you multiply $20 or $50 times the amount of ounces in a pound and then multiply by 5,148 pounds you can get high up there in more sense than one.
ReplyDelete-Ronco
This bammer dosent get sold in northern California put it like this you can't sell that in all of California you will get beat up unless the paisas are buying it.
DeleteIdk about that. All the mexicans i know grow their own supplies of the good stuff
DeleteWho controls the perico, gayo and chiva will control the world
ReplyDeleteGallo
DeleteChiva they want to control you.
ReplyDeleteNOOOOOOOO!!!!! I've never smoked a bowl i didn't get high with [kush or stress]. Those who say Mexican weed is bunk don't know jack shit. You're getting shitty weed because your connect is selling you shitty weed [which is also Mexican weed]. Most of the quality bud is sold to the dispensaries and high end sellers. The middle shelf Mexican is what i get, it's cheaper in price and it'll get you just as high as top shelf kush. Kush is bomb but the problem is that it wears off quick [at $20 to $25 a gram you could barely pack a blunt compared to a dub of stress which could last you a week or more].
ReplyDeleteThey swear like it's top shelf grade a marijuana if they knew anything about northern California bud they would no you will get beat up for trying to sell this on the street especially in the bay area that's dirt weed we ain't in arizona we got the real bud not that 3 % thc level dirt brick weed.
ReplyDeleteHaha oakland is flooded wit mexican weed or reggie wut eva u wanna call it. I seen it guys in corners sellin it. Its a money maker whether it brick weed. And for az now dat its legal for medical rhey got top grade too. Cai weed is now over rated. Yea they had the best for awhile cus they were da only state dat was legal. Now theres more states daat have legalized it. Az jus won 3 place in cali bud bowl fyi
DeleteChapo snitched where are all you chapo nuthuggers now
ReplyDeleteYeah chapo is snitching left and right even on low level nobody`s
Deletethe more value added to the confiscated goods, the more bonus for law enforcement, credit, etc, US law enforcement will even sell more promises of a better performance if on the basis of cash value of goods confiscated their budgets are enriched by MORE AND MORE MONEY for the police state.
ReplyDeletei understand perico, and chiva, my vice, but what is gayo? or yayo? gallo?
ReplyDeletehorse?
--chiva, i have been asked about you in bars in very remote US locations, you are very famous, since before al gore invented the internet, what is your excuse? aah?
That´s a CAF shipment right there
ReplyDeleteYeah right....thats straight Sinaloa....mis primos handlin Norcal
Deletesinaloa!!! no seas mamon wey k primos no k nada aora todos kieren ser mafiosos pinches huevones travajen como la gente wey
Deleteya mamasela alos de sinaloa jajaja
DeleteBringing Mexican weed into northern California is like bringing a Big Mac into a 5 star restaurant. Duh!
ReplyDeleteExactly it will still be eaten
DeletePretty much
DeleteSurenos!
Delete11:19 is right , no one here in Cali will buy that shit , San Jose just shut down most of the medical marijuana clubs selling weed , but most people here including me grow their own ( which is legal ) in Cali, so that weed isnt worth shit
ReplyDelete@7:42
ReplyDeletewell NOW you tell me, where were you when I was bobbing like a chola trying to figure which cholo bit the dust, in the land of cholo plenty? :)
Paz
Somewhere out and about i suppose haha I only get WiFi in certain places.. Cholo vago is in Sinaloa he doesn't leave the area he goes from La Rosca Sinaloa to guamuchil. And at times Durango.. Cholo Salazar is still around too. All diff. characters.. The Cholo that just got popped was all coked out... That's why he went rambo against the estatales and marina all by himself
Delete_Fer M.
Does anybody know who's sending the shipments up the coast? For a while it seemed they were either finding empty pangas or intercepting everyday in ventura and santa Barbara counties. Because of the panga activities, Homeland security now patrols the coast .
ReplyDeleteFor all the "weedconomist" you need to stick to your hourly jobs. If that mota had landed safely it would have been green backs and fast! Bulk kilos right now are 170-250 pesos in La Noria, Villa Union, and every other serious market in the Sierra Madre - so your suggesting an investor paid $50K USD for the product, and then $30-$60k in transportation/security costs just in hopes that they can move the mota in Nothern Cal? Serious? They paid far more in transportation, fuel Motherboat, etc to land it in Northern Cal b/c less risk of enforcement loss.
ReplyDeleteA kg is 250 pesos? Damn thats a good price
DeleteYes but realize that is in places with dirt unofficial roads to the fields. its a big investment after you buy several hundred and then the real expensive part is mules, security, piso, etc. The most expensive part is getting caught by US enforcement or plazas you don't pay.
DeleteWA got that dab and kush for the masses losers blaze stress....
ReplyDeleteThank you Siskiyou_kid for raising the "bs" flag;
ReplyDelete5,148 pounds,,,a street value of about $23 million=$9.97 per gram- raise the flag.
LOL at 23M, that load is worth $2-5 million, depending on the quality and thc level and those snobby dudes that say "I only smoke that bomb kush with 25%+ Thc. Fuck that Mexican brick weed." C'mon man, you know you have only smoked that shit a few times and 90% of the time you smoke mid to low quality shit. You know your not paying $15-20 for an ounce of kush, more like $10 for an 1/8th of an ounce. LOL The way I see it is like this, only the rich kids, those with a pretty good income and extreme pot heads that see marijuana as their good are willing to pay high end prices. So unless you guys who claim to "only smoke that bomb kush" are one of these options, than most likely your not smoking "the best shit." The rest of consumers, well lets just say that if their not growing their own, than most likely they are buying some that comes from down south and don't even know it or are told differently when buying it.
ReplyDeletePlz Stop with the "im from cali all I smoke is kush" . You are nott your favorite rapper. More people buy dirt weed then ur high quality budl
ReplyDeleteCDS nuthugger
But I thought that California had the best MJ in the world and there was no market for mexi brick MJ? Legal/medical MJ will stop cartel MJ they said.
ReplyDeleteIts b.s ain't no one smoking that bammer unless you one broke ass cat
DeleteThere's grade A weed in Mexico. Everyone who thinks its only in California is a dumbass...where do you think that confiscated load was headed?....that's right, to a consumer. People in these times only believe what lil wayne said or what they read in High Times. Yall are a bunch of pendejos.
ReplyDeleteIt's swhhaaggggg get over yourself don't Gimmie no bammer weed we don't smoke that shit in the sfc
DeleteI like the weaker stuff. I can actually smoke a whole small joint by myself without getting too stoned. Legal shops sometimes have mid-grade at very good prices, but you usually need to ask. Most of them wouldn't buy it in the first place though, it seems that people get more excited about it being most potent, so it is their fastest sellers. The worst part about mid-low grades is that the quality varies wildly, but some of it can be quite tasty, even it it's brick. I suspect the farmers and packers are keeping the best parts for themselves, to use and sell locally. And then traffickers sell the better quality stuff to privileged buyers.
ReplyDeleteLol no one in northern Cali fucks with that weak ass bunk shit. It was probably going to head back down towards so cal and az.
ReplyDeleteurban dictionary: swag police...
ReplyDeletewhen you have too much or too littleswiggity swag so the special SSTT,
super swag tactical team will help you...by itsfreakydiecky
--in my experience, police depts all over make money off swag before and after they get it...
--to me, swag is any confiscated goods or contraband tradeable by the police
For all u non californians,this load was probably goin to be sent to wash and or was going to be turned into honeycomb wax.a gram of wax goes for 20-40 depending on color and u can get 90-100 gr off each lb,so do the math. California has the best herb,but it cant supply the whole nation.
ReplyDeleteSwag or not I'll take smoke it make brownies or traded for shit either way
ReplyDeleteThe mexican weed over here in Texas is good !
ReplyDeleteyou could probably get about 1.5 Million USD if they stood on the street and managed to sell it at $200 an ounce
ReplyDeleteI love how they artificially inflate the value of marijuana in the papers and the news, no one would really be interested. But there's probably an ulterior motive when it comes to news media's cause they are in bed with the government.
Two states here in the United States weed is already legal, and in most other states you can have an ounce on your possession... there is no arrest for weed anymore maybe a fine of $200 called a walking fine.
See but the government want's to get in on dealing weed just like they been selling us alcohol forever now.
Here is some real figures, in my state alone the state government made 3.2 Billion dollars last year in profit from the sell of alcohol.
but there's still potholes and ditches in my road!