Police seize 18 tons of illegal drugs in San Bernardino County

June 25, 2010 |  1:40 pm

A traffic stop led to the seizure of 18 tons of illegal drugs, considered one of the largest ever in San Bernardino County, officials said Friday.
Truck driver Fernando Luevano, 32, was arrested and charged with transportation and sale of narcotics.
He was driving east on Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County on Wednesday morning when a narcotics officer with the Sheriff’s Department stopped him for a traffic violation and found his paperwork was not in order.
Luevano consented to a search of the truck, during which the officer smelled marijuana, sheriff's officials said in a statement. He discovered 92 pallets containing thousands of heat-sealed packages of drugs: 2,750 pounds of cocaine, 67 pounds of methamphetamine and 38,000 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $45 million.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops called the seizure “one of the largest in the county.”
-- Sam Quinones