Border Patrol says smuggling attempts thwarted by air, land and sea

Smuggling attempts by air, land and sea were thwarted in the past two days, the U.S. Border Patrol announced Monday.

On Sunday, agents on patrol in the desert of Imperial County found 10 large bundles of marijuana in a metal basket believed to have been dropped from an ultra-light aircraft from Mexico.

The bundles, weighing 230 pounds, were seized before they could be picked up by smugglers, the Border Patrol said. The street value of the pot was set at $140,220.

An even larger cache of abandoned marijuana was found Monday at 3:45 a.m. in 84 packages left adjacent to the Alamo River east of Calexico, close to the border.

It is not uncommon for smugglers to carry marijuana bundles across the border from Mexico and then leave them in the brush near the river for fellow conspirators to pick up, the Border Patrol said.

At 1048 pounds, the pot was valued at $628,000, the Border Patrol said.

Sunday night, four suspected illegal immigrants were seized on Silver Strand Beach in Coronado. The four had been dropped off on the beach by two smugglers on jet skis, the Border Patrol said.

The four -- women ages 18 to 40 and a 15-year-old boy -- were taken into custody for processing back to Mexico. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter followed the jet-ski operators as they sped back to Mexico, but no arrests were made.