{"id":211845,"date":"2026-03-09T17:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/211845\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:36:13","slug":"wrong-kind-of-fuel-nearly-1000-pounds-of-liquid-meth-seized-in-big-rig-fuel-tank-at-otay-mesa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/211845\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrong kind of fuel: Nearly 1,000 pounds of liquid meth seized in big rig fuel tank at Otay Mesa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The truck\u2019s tank was full but it wasn\u2019t with fuel.<\/p>\n<p>Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa Import Cargo Facility discovered nearly 1,000 pounds of liquid methamphetamine stuffed inside a commercial tractor-trailer\u2019s fuel tank last week after spotting a white, crystalline substance on top of the tank during inspection, according to a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdca\/pr\/nearly-half-ton-liquid-meth-seized-otay-mesa-cargo-facility\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">statement <\/a>from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of California.<\/p>\n<p>A follow-up search uncovered 29 buckets of liquid concealed inside the passenger-side fuel tank, totaling approximately 428.60 kilograms, or 944.90 pounds. A sample from the fuel tank tested positive for methamphetamine, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>The driver, Oscar Alonzo Cesena Camacho, 26, a Mexican citizen from Tijuana traveling on a business visa, was arrested and charged with importation of a controlled substance under federal law, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, up to life, and a fine of up to $10 million if convicted.<\/p>\n<p>Cesena Camacho appeared in court March 3 before Magistrate Judge Jill L. Burkhardt, who ordered him held without bail citing flight risk. A preliminary hearing is set for March 17 and arraignment for March 26, court records show.<\/p>\n<p>Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are leading the investigation, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The truck\u2019s tank was full but it wasn\u2019t with fuel. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97447,97446,7,9,8,97443,97444,16530,3722,97442,97445,346,28973,97448,2621,23057,65694,5783],"class_list":{"0":"post-211845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-big-rig-fuel-tank","9":"tag-border-protection-officer","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-court-march","14":"tag-crystalline-substance","15":"tag-customs","16":"tag-fuel","17":"tag-liquid-meth","18":"tag-liquid-methamphetamine","19":"tag-office","20":"tag-otay-mesa","21":"tag-passenger-side-fuel-tank","22":"tag-pound","23":"tag-southern-district","24":"tag-tank","25":"tag-u-s-attorney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}