$1.4 million in oxycodone found hidden in woman’s car at Otay Mesa border
A 22-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of trying to smuggle $1.4 million worth of addictive painkillers across the Otay Mesa border crossing.
The 47,340 tablets found in a hidden compartment under the woman’s car represent the largest seizure of oxycodone along the U.S.-Mexico border in at least five years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The woman, Adriana Morfin-Paniagua, a U.S. citizen living in Tijuana, was charged with importing a controlled substance.
According to a federal complaint, a Customs and Border Protection officer smelled a silicone-like odor when Morfin-Paniagua drove up to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry around 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The officer used a mirror to look under the 1999 Honda Accord and spotted packages in a makeshift compartment, according to the complaint.
At a secondary inspection area, officers used a car lift and discovered 30 plastic-wrapped packages in the undercarriage compartment, which had been constructed with sheet metal, screws and silicone.
Inside the parcels were yellow, 40 mg tablets, marked on one side as “OP†— the label for a brand name of oxycodone, OxyContin. The tablets later tested positive for properties of oxycodone.
Typically sold for $30 a tablet, the volume of seized opioid painkillers has a street value of $1.4 million, authorities said.
According to the complaint, Morfin-Paniagua admitted to Homeland Security investigators that she knew the hidden packages contained some kind of drug. She told them she was promised $1,000 to $1,500 if she smuggled the narcotics.
If convicted, Morfin-Paniagua faces up to 22 years in prison.
Hernandez writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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