25,000-Pound Marijuana Seizure is County's Largest Ever

TEMECULA - A federal drug charge was filed today against a trucker who allegedly had 14-plus tons of marijuana with a street value of about $25 million in his rig when he was pulled over for a traffic violation on Interstate 15.

Angel Guillen-Raya, who was taken into custody on Wednesday, was due in a federal courtroom in Riverside this afternoon on one count of drug possession with intent to distribute.

The suspect allegedly told authorities he had transported a truckful of marijuana to Ontario earlier in the week, and the confiscated shipment was also bound for that San Bernardino County city.

A sheriff's patrol deputy pulled the driver over about 9 a.m. Wednesday on northbound I-15, just past the Rainbow Canyon Road exit south of Temecula.

According to U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Patrick Brown, who works with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the driver had been following another big rig too closely.

"As Deputy (Glen) Warrington was driving up alongside the subject vehicle, the subject vehicle changed lanes and almost collided with Deputy Warrington's vehicle," Brown wrote in an affidavit.

The deputy stopped the driver for making an illegal lane change and asked him for paperwork, which he could not provide, Brown said.

As the deputy spoke with Guillen-Raya, another deputy with a dog pulled up and the canine alerted them to the presence of drugs, according to the agent.

A search of the truck revealed numerous boxes filled with plastic-wrapped bricks of a green leafy substance that turned out to be marijuana, Brown said.

The boxes were lined up on pallets and, according to Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez, the contraband was "stacked from front to back -- solid."

Gutierrez said it was the largest confiscation of marijuana in the history of the Riverside County Sheriff Department.

He said the cannabis is estimated to have a wholesale value of more than $10 million and a street value of about $25 million.