| Photo: Customs and Border Protection |
| This 146-pound brick of Mexican schwag was discovered in the gas tank of 1999 Chevrolet Astro Van. |
A Texas woman is in jail after officers said they found more than 146 pounds of marijuana in her car’s gas tank.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers arrested Viridiana Salinas-Padron on federal drug charges Wednesday, reports Sergio Chapa at ValleyCentral.com.
The 27-year-old South Padre Island woman entered the United States at the border crossing over Brownsville’s Veterans International Bridge.
Customs officers said they found 146.3 pounds of cannabis inside the gas tank of her 1999 Chevrolet Astro Van during a secondary inspection.
Salinas-Padron was supposed to get paid $400 to drive the van to an H-E-B grocery store in Brownsville, court records show.
The defendant, a Mexican citizen who lives on South Padre Island, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Felix Recio in Brownsville on Thursday morning.
The judge set Salinas-Padron’s bail at $75,000, but she remains in custody, according to court records.
She is scheduled to appear in court again on July 1.
