Man Hides Marijuana Under Wheelchair

April 5th, 2011

Authorities have arrested 19-year old Donte Jonae Damas, a man posing as a disabled person when crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Damas was not held for feigning an injury, but rather for attempting to smuggle five pounds of marijuana under the seat his wheelchair.

Border patrolmen at the San Ysidro crossing said that when Damas went through customs into the United States while in his wheelchair on March 28, he looked anxious and nervous when a drug-sniffing dog came up to him at the pedestrian processing area. After a thorough search, the agents found three packages of marijuana wrapped tightly under the seat of his wheelchair.

Damas was in fact not disabled, officials report, but rather used the wheelchair as a strategy to smuggle his drugs.

The wheelchair was soon seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Damas was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement. He is currently held at the San Diego County Jail on $35,000 bail, and will appear in court on April 11.

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Brandon Yu, Senior Managing Editor