Global Ganja Report

Parents in the small West Texas town of Van Horn are concerned that narco-traffickers are using school buses after nearly 500 pounds of compacted cannabis was found on a bus carrying junior varsity basketball players back home from an out-of-town game. The bus driver found the drugs when the  bus emblazoned with the Van Horn Eagles name on the side stopped at a convenience store in Marfa so the players could get snacks. He found the marijuana stuffed in four large, black duffel bags stashed in the bottom storage area. The bus had already passed through a road checkpoint. (KHOU, Houston, Nov. 21)

On Oct. 26, a Texas state trooper fired on a pick-up truck from a helicopter during a chase through the South Texas desert, killing two passengers—who later proved to be undocumented migrants from Guatemala. The officer said he was trying to disable the vehicle and suspected it was smuggling drugs. A third migrant was injured in the incident on an isolated gravel road near the town of La Joya, just north of the Mexico border near McAllen.

State game wardens were the first to encounter the truck. After the driver refused to stop, they radioed for help and state police responded. When the helicopter with a sharpshooter arrived, officers determined that the truck appeared to be carrying a "typical covered drug load" on its bed and was traveling at reckless speeds, police said. Instead, the truck were transporting immigrants. No drugs were found. (Austin Statesman, The Monitor, McAllen, Oct. 26)

Graphic: timrawle