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Deputies arrest juvenile, seize nearly 700 pounds of marijuana

Release Date: 
March 20, 2018

TUCSON, Ariz. – Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies participating in Operation Stonegarden, along with Border Patrol agents, responded to a vehicle rollover report Saturday evening east of Nogales and found an abandoned Montero with 36 bundles of marijuana.

The lead deputy took custody of the vehicle and its load of approximately 700 pounds of marijuana, worth an estimated $350,000.

Later that evening, Nogales Border Patrol camera operators reported an individual walking along Duquesne Road approximately 2 miles from the crash site. When agents responded to question the male subject, he attempted to escape by running into the desert.

Agents quickly apprehended the subject, later identified as a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who had been driving the vehicle when it crashed. A sheriff’s deputy returned to the area and took custody of the juvenile.

Operation Stonegarden is a Department of Homeland Security program that grants funds to other local, state and tribal law enforcement agencies to enhance and strengthen border security throughout the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Last modified: 
March 21, 2018
Tags: 
Border Security
U.S. Border Patrol
Smuggling