Marijuana and Methamphetamine worth $1.86 Million
January 27, 2017
After two weeks of no reported border drug seizures at Nogales international ports of entry, two Mexican commercial truck drivers were arrested during the fourth week of November 2016 in separate attempts to smuggle a combined ton of drugs across the international border at Nogales.
On November 23, a team of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and a drug-detection canine found more than 350 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a semi that was transporting Chinese vegetables for import to the United States at the Mariposa Port Commercial Facility in Nogales.
The driver, a 51-year-old man from Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico was apprehended and the meth, valued at $1.06 million, was seized along with the tractor-trailer. The seizure was the second-largest thus far for the Tucson sector.
The second Nogales international border drug discovery that week also occurred at the Mariposa Port Commercial Facility, where CBP officers accompanied by a drug-sniffing dog located more than 1,600 pounds of marijuana hidden in the top of the cab of an empty tractor-trailer driven by a 37-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
The value of the seized marijuana was valued to be more than $800,000.
The combined total of 1,950 pounds of drugs valued at $1.86 million were seized along with the vehicles, and the alleged Nogales international border drug smugglers were arrested and turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations unit.
Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
