The federal government is seeking more than $4 million in penalties against the Union Pacific Railroad Company for allegedly failing to prevent its railcars from being used by drug smugglers.
A recent lawsuit filed at the federal courthouse in Brownsville specifically uses a failed cocaine smuggling incident in Brownsville as an example.
The lawsuit shows that customs officers found almost 258 pounds of cocaine from a railcar going through the B&M International Bridge on June 16, 2003.
According to the lawsuit, a Union Pacific Railroad shipping manifest showed the railcar was supposed to be empty.
But customs officers allegedly found 99 packages of cocaine hidden inside a false wall on the bottom side of the railcar.
The U.S. Attorney General's Office is seeking $4,128,000 in penalties from Union Pacific under a federal law that holds shipper reasonable for their cargo.
Federal prosecutors allege that the company failed to prevent "the use of its rail car to smuggle large quantities of narcotics into the United States."
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT