(Youngstown Resident Office of the DEA)
WARREN, Ohio (AP) - Authorities say more than 400 pounds (181 kilograms) of marijuana has been found in 15 new cars made in Mexico and shipped to Ohio and Pennsylvania to sell.
A drug task force in Ohio's Portage County was called to a Ford dealership this week after a service department employee found a package of pressed marijuana in a spare tire compartment during a vehicle inspection.
Investigators then went to a rail yard near Warren and found more packages in the trunks of Ford Fusions pressed into the shape of a spare tire. Additional packages were found at other northeast Ohio dealerships and one in Pennsylvania.
A Drug Enforcement Administration agent tells The Vindicator that marijuana was found in April in new cars shipped from Mexico to Minnesota.