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  4. Nogales CBP Officers Apprehend 4 Drug Smugglers in 4 Days

Nogales CBP Officers Apprehend 4 Drug Smugglers in 4 Days

Release Date
Wed, 03/14/2018

 TUCSON, Ariz. –U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Arizona’s Port of Nogales apprehended four people involved in separate failed attempts to smuggle 67 pounds of methamphetamine and heroin into the United States over the past four days.

Officers working at the Dennis DeConcini Crossing referred a 19-year-old Tucson man for further inspection of his Chevy truck yesterday afternoon. A CBP canine alerted officers to more than 24 pounds of meth, worth almost $73,000, from the truck’s bench seat.

Officers removed 24 pounds of meth from behind the bench seat of a smuggling vehicle
Officers removed 24 pounds of meth
from behind the bench seat of a
smuggling vehicle

Earlier that morning, officers at the pedestrian lanes of the DeConcini Crossing referred a 44-year-old Mexican woman for secondary inspection where a CBP canine alerted to an odor it was trained to detect, leading officers to discover more than 4 pounds of heroin, worth nearly $77,000, beneath the subjects’ armpits.

Officers removed packages of heroin from beneath her armpits
Officers removed packages of heroin
from beneath the armpits of a body
carrier

Early Sunday morning, a 45-year-old Tucson woman was referred for further questioning at the pedestrian lanes of the DeConcini Crossing. A canine alert led officers to remove a package of heroin from her crotch. The package was just over one-half-pound of heroin, worth more than $10,000.

This past Friday, a 43-year-old Nogales, Ariz. woman was referred for a secondary inspection of her Dodge sedan at the Mariposa Crossing. Following a CBP canine alert to the vehicle’s door panels and firewall, officers removed almost 38 pounds of meth, worth nearly $113,000.

Smugglers attempted to hide cocaine within the door panels and firewall of a smuggling vehicle
Smugglers attempted to hide cocaine
within the door panels and firewall of
a smuggling vehicle

 

Officers seized the drugs and vehicle, and turned the subjects over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.

Last Modified: Feb 03, 2021