| Photo: KTLA-TV |
| Marijuana — 1.5 tons of it — was found inside this tanker car in L.A. suburb Commerce, California. |
A late-night police chase ended with a big pot bust and the discovery Monday of 3,000 pounds of marijuana concealed in a railroad tank car that came into the United States from Mexico this month, reports Nardine Saad of The Associated Press.
Numerous bundles of cannabis weighing up to 50 pounds each were removed from the gooey inside of the petroleum rail tanker by late morning Monday, and many more packages were still inside, according to police Detective Gus Villanueva.
The retrieval in a rail yard southeast of Los Angeles was halted about 10 a.m., because “something suspicious” was found inside and a bomb squad was summoned, Villanueva said.
The incident began about 11 p.m. Sunday when Los Angeles Police Department officers tried to stop a speeding vehicle near the train tracks around Union Pacific Avenue, reports Robert Faturechi of the Los Angeles Times. The three suspects sped off and got away, prompting officers to set up a perimeter.
When the suspects’ vehicle was stopped and they jumped out of the car, police noticed an oily substance on their pants. The same residue was found on a bundle of marijuana found in their vehicle.
“So the officers start looking around, and they find an oil tanker,” Det. Villanueva said.
As of noon Monday, the L.A. Fire Department had removed 38 bundles of marijuana from the tanker. At least 40 more bales remained inside, according to Villanueva.
There is still more pot inside the tanker, according to authorities, but they had to take a break from searching and removing bales after the bomb squad was called in.
It was unclear whether the suspects were stashing the pot in the tanker after the pursuit, or if they were recovering it from a cache stored there, according to Villanueva.
