TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Nogales seized nearly 117 pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine during separate weekend smuggling attempts.
The largest seizure occurred Jan. 25 when CBP officers at the Mariposa crossing referred a Nissan sedan for further inspection. After officers interviewed the driver, a 40-year-old Mexican national woman, a drug canine alerted to the rear trunk area where officers found 10 packages of cocaine weighing a combined 28.6 pounds. The drugs are worth slightly more than $299,000.
Also on Jan. 25, CBP officers using narcotics-detecting canines at the Dennis DeConcini crossing found nearly 15 pounds of meth in the fuel tank of a Ford truck belonging to a 30-year-old man from Nogales, Arizona. In another incident, they found more than 43 pounds of meth within the rear bumper of a Ford sedan occupied by a 25-year-old Mexican man and his 24-year-old Mexican female passenger. The drugs have a combined value of $173,600.
Canines at the Dennis DeConcini crossing also assisted CBP officers with finding 18 pounds of methamphetamine, worth close to $53,000, in the backseat of a Volkswagen sedan belonging to a 21-year-old man from Nogales, Arizona on Jan. 22.
On Jan. 23, officers and CBP canines at the Dennis DeConcini crossing removed nearly 12.5 pounds of meth, worth more than $37,000, from a Chrysler sedan’s rear quarter panels and trunk. Officers arrested two 21-year-olds, a man and woman from Mexico.
All of the drugs and vehicles were seized and the subjects over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.