By Robert Patrick
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
FESTUS, Mo. — There was something unusual about an empty trailer on a big rig stopped by police this week along Interstate 55. It measured two feet longer on the outside than on the inside, officials found.
In a hidden compartment, Festus police and the Drug Enforcement Agency intercepted a half-ton of Mexican marijuana bound for Chicago, federal court records show.
The driver, Marco Antonio Tiscareno, 44, of Chula Vista, Calif., told officials he was a courier for a Texas-based Mexican drug gang and got paid $4,000 for the trip, according to court documents.
A court affidavit filed by Bridgeton Police Officer Eric Lanham said officials seized 1,026 pounds of marijuana. It is believed to have a street value of about $500,000.
In federal court in St. Louis on Wednesday, Lanham testified that Tiscareno said that he had made other trips.
In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Bertolet said that during a previous drug investigation, a van registered to Tiscareno pulled up just as investigators arrived to seize two tractor-trailers loaded with 6,700 pounds of marijuana.
Tiscareno now faces a felony charge of possession with intent to distribute more than 100 kilos of marijuana.
Copyright 2008 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch