A 28-year-old man caught some heat with the US Customs and Border Protection in Southern California after officers said they found thousands of kilograms of drugs hidden in a jalapeno paste shipment.
The agency's officers at the Otay Mesa Cargo Facility encountered a driver in a commercial tractor trailer last week, carrying a shipment declared as jalapeno paste, according to a news release.
The vehicle, shipment and the driver, who officials said held a valid border crossing card, were referred for additional examination in a secondary inspection area.
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There, a K9 unit scanned the shipment and alerted officers to conduct a more thorough check of the tractor trailer, according to the release.
"Upon further examination, CBP officers discovered and extracted a total of 349 suspicious packages from vats of jalapeno paste," the release stated.
Testing and identification of the packages' contents revealed them to contain almost 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine and about 236kg of cocaine, according to the agency.
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Images provided by the agency showed several large reddish-orange barrels holding the packages surrounded by jalapeno paste.
The estimated street value of the narcotics is more than $US10.4 million ($15.5 million).
The driver was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations and the drugs and tractor trailer were seized, officials said.
The agency has seized more than 63.5 tonnes of methamphetamine and more than 36 tonnes of cocaine in 2023, federal data show.
