A 29-year-old man driving a commercial tractor-trailer ran into trouble with CBP officers at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility in San Diego on Friday as he was trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico, the agency said.

The man said he was bringing a shipment of watermelons across the border, according to the CBP statement. Officers sent the driver, his vehicle and its cargo for further examination after the first checkpoint.

The supposed shipment of watermelons was offloaded from the truck in the secondary inspection area, where, upon further inspection, CBP said, officers found “1,220 packages wrapped in paper, disguised as watermelons within the shipment.”

“The contents of the packages were tested and identified as methamphetamine, with a total weight 4587 pounds,” CBP said. “The estimated street value of the drugs exceeds $5 million dollars.”

CBP officers seized the narcotics and the tractor-trailer, the agency said, and the driver was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation.

“I am incredibly proud of our team for their exceptional work over the past few weeks in uncovering sophisticated and diverse smuggling methods,” said Rosa E. Hernandez, port director for the Area Port of Otay Mesa. “As drug cartels continue to evolve their smuggling techniques, we will continue finding new and better ways to prevent these dangerous drugs and other contraband from entering the country.”

Just one week before, CBP officers at the same facility intercepted 629 pounds of the same drug, this time concealed in a shipment of celery, according to a separate release from the agency. That shipment had an estimated street value of $755,000.

According to CBP, both seizures are the result of Operation Apollo, which is described as a “holistic counter-fentanyl effort” that began in October in Southern California and expanded to Arizona in April.

The operation “focuses on intelligence collection and partnerships, and utilizes local CBP field assets augmented by federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to boost resources, increase collaboration, and target the smuggling of fentanyl into the United States,” CBP said.

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A man accused of supplying a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 40-year-old Norco resident must stand trial for second-degree murder, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Johnnie Curtis Stevens, 40, of Norco was arrested in April following a months-long Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death of Jason Schmuch.

At the end of a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Randall Stamen ruled there was sufficient evidence to bound Stevens over for trial on the murder count and scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for Aug. 30 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

The defendant is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Liebrand, on the morning of Nov. 19, 2023, deputies were called to the intersection of Roundup Road and Stagecoach Drive to investigate reports of a comatose man.
Schmuch was pronounced dead at the scene, Liebrand said.

“Deputies located evidence indicative of a fentanyl overdose,” he said.

The sheriff’s Overdose Death Investigations & Narcotics Unit was assigned to the case after it was confirmed “Schmuch died as a result of fentanyl poisoning,” according to the sergeant.

An initial search warrant was served at Stevens’ property in the 5000 block of Trail Street less than a day after the victim’s death. Liebrand said deputies seized “fentanyl, methamphetamine and (drug) paraphernalia” at the location.

Investigators additionally discovered the defendant’s daughter, whose identity wasn’t released, “had access to the narcotics,” Liebrand alleged. Stevens was initially booked into jail only for child endangerment, and he posted bail soon afterward.

The ODIN Unit’s investigation continued, culminating in sufficient evidence to seek a murder charge against the defendant, which prosecutors filed in mid-April.

Stevens has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. His connection to the victim was not disclosed.

Since February 2021, more than two dozen individuals countywide have been charged with murder in connection with fentanyl poisonings.

In November, prosecutors closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34- year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman. District Attorney Mike Hestrin said it was the first fentanyl murder conviction in the state.

According to public health statistics, there were 550 known fentanyl- related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 9% increase from 2022, when there were 503.

Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the drug is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.

Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

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