277 pounds of pot found on Ford shipment from Mexico

(WJBK) - Ford gets an unexpected surprise on its recent delivery in Woodhaven.

There have not been any arrests yet, but investigators are following up on a number of leads.

The feds are investigating the discovery of nearly 300 pounds of pot in a shipment of new Ford Motor Company vehicles.

Ford employees found the marijuana concealed in rail cars at the Ford rail distribution facility in Woodhaven Wednesday morning.

The cars had just brought in Ford and Lincoln vehicles from Mexico.

The dope discovery was eerily similar to one in Ohio where more than $1 million worth of marijuana was found in 15 Ford Fusions last week.

Those vehicles were also made in Mexico.

FOX 2: "From your experience, does this have cartel written all over it?"

"From my experience it's hard not to link it to cartel related activity," said former Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee.

Godbee doubts this is the first time someone shipped large amounts of narcotics to Michigan in this fashion. And because it did not get to whoever was expecting it here, there's a real possibility the seizure will be felt in the streets.

"The drug market is different than other businesses in the way it corrects itself," he said. "If you have close to $2 million worth of product that doesn't make it to its destination, unfortunately in the drug business someone is asked to answer for that. So they're looking for their money or their dope and obviously with the interdiction, it didn't show up."

The feds may soon have a jump on the case. Steve Francis head of homeland security investigations says Wednesday's seizure "Offers actionable intelligence that HSI and our partners can now develop into a larger probe"

Godbee says it's not hard to put two and two together.

"You figure somebody within Ford Motor Company had something to do with that within the shipping process and the railroad process," he said. "So there's so many levels of infiltration that went on."

FOX 2 reached out to ford for comment and the automaker released this statement:

"We are taking this very seriously. We are working closely with a number of law enforcement agencies on this investigation, including the FBI, customs, Department of Homeland Security and local police. We cannot comment further as this is an active investigation."