Contraband vault packed with guns, money, dope

Posted by David Pescovitz, March 23, 2009 11:38 AM |

There are three vaults in Arizona that store contraband nabbed by US port inspectors and customs agents on Arizona's 370-mile border with Mexico. A reporter from the Arizona Republic visited one of them, in Nogales, where racks are packed with 27,000 pounds of marijuana, boxes of speed, coke, and guns. A file cabinet holds half-a-million dollars in cash. From the Arizona Republic:

The Nogales vault, the largest of three such facilities in Arizona, represents just one stop in the government's enormous disposal network. Security is tight at the facility, which is surrounded by fences topped with razor wire and signs warning, "Restricted Area."

There is a lock on the gate, two more on doors leading into the main room. All who pass through must sign successive log sheets as they enter and again when they leave.

A trio of port inspectors arrives from Lukeville with freshly seized marijuana. The men unload sealed boxes and remove tire-shaped bricks of marijuana, removed from the wheels of a pickup truck. The scales are tested for accuracy. Each curved block of pot is cross-checked with a shipment sheet showing the precise total weight: 59.4 kilograms.