Federal law enforcement officers seized nearly half a ton of liquid methamphetamine from a commercial truck at the Otay Mesa Import Cargo Facility on Monday, one of the largest liquid meth seizures at the San Diego border in recent memory.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers made the discovery around 11:30 a.m. on March 2 after spotting a white, crystalline substance on the outside of the passenger-side fuel tank of a 2019 Kenworth T680 tractor-trailer attempting to enter the United States.

Inside, officers found 944.90 pounds of liquid methamphetamine — roughly 430 kilograms — concealed in 29 separate buckets hidden within the fuel tank, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California.

The driver, Oscar Alonzo Cesena Camacho, 26, a Mexican citizen traveling on a business visa, was arrested and charged with importation of a controlled substance. He told officers he had agreed to leave the truck in a parking lot in Otay Mesa in exchange for $1,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in San Diego federal court. Camacho faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, a mandatory minimum of 10 years, and a fine of up to $10 million.

Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are investigating. For East County residents, the bust underscores the scale of drug smuggling operations running through the Otay Mesa port of entry — a primary cargo crossing just over 30 miles from Santee — and the work federal agents do daily to intercept narcotics before they reach communities across the region.