(Lordstown) - Police in the Youngstown area are confirming that a lot of marijuana has been smuggled into the United States by being packed into the spare tire compartment of new cars that were built in Mexico.
The Vindicator newspaper in Youngstown says there were incidents in 2015 and 2016 in which marijuana was found inside new Ford Fusions that were shipped in from Mexico, and unloaded at a CSX Railroad freight yard in Lordstown.
Lordstown Police say in 2015, tape was used to affix 50-100 pounds of marijuana to the underside of a new Ford Fusion, and remnants of tape were found on 11 other vehicles. The rail car carrying the Fusions went through Chicago, so it's believed that most of the cars had marijuana removed from them at a Chicago rail yard.
In 2016, a Pittsburgh Ford dealer called Lordstown Police to say one of the cars delivered there from the Lordstown CSX yard had marijuana in the spare tire compartment.
The discovery of marijuana in one car earlier this month happened at a Ford dealership in Kent, and it was discovered by a dealership employee. The driver of the auto carrier who delivered the car to the dealer called Kent Police, who then contacted their counterparts in Lordstown.
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