There’s apparently a new model car, the Ford 420, we didn’t hear about, but it isn’t a tuned up version of the Mustang, like the Boss 302. Instead, it’s based on a Fusion, and definitely isn’t sanctioned by Ford.
The Dilworth Police Department in Minnesota was called to the Dilworth Auto Yard after BNSF Railway employees found narcotics inside new Ford Fusions built in Mexico, according to a press release. Police expanded their search and found 14 circular bricks of marijuana inside the spare wheel well of seven vehicles.
In total, 217 pounds of marijuana were found, with an estimated value of $272,000.
The St. Paul Police department had a similar situation in February, in which 15 Fusions were carrying drugs on the same rail car, according to Alpha News and TRUNEWS. Although police recovered all the marijuana, roughly 40 to 60 pounds per vehicle, many of the cars already had been delivered to dealers, and some were even delivered to Enterprise Rent-A-Car at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Authorities reportedly said smuggling illegal items in consumer goods is a common problem, and only 4 percent of commercial imports are physically searched. Many shippers require manufacturers to perform inspections before goods leave the factory and are loaded onto the rail cars, suggesting the drugs were loaded into the vehicles after that quality check.
“The plant assembly employees sometimes only make $50 a week, leaving a huge window for bribery,” an unnamed U.S. customs broker told TRUNEWS. “It’s not unheard of for impoverished foreign nationals to take payoffs, especially since what the cartels can pay may equal a year’s worth of wages or if they threaten the employee or their family.”
Alpha News speculates the marijuana smuggled in the Fusions could be connected to El Chapo, as they were assembled at Ford’s plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, an area controlled by the Sinaloa cartel.
