Major Nogales Commercial Port Busts and Vehicular Seizures
January 28, 2017
From December 20 to 23, four Nogales international Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border drug interdictions resulted in seizures of 2,433 pounds of drugs valued at $4,689,000.
The first two of those drug seizures, on December 20 and 21, involved trucks attempting to haul cargo through the Nogales Mariposa Commercial Facility.
On Tuesday, December 20, CBP officers and a drug-detection canine inspecting a commercial tractor-trailer driven by a 51-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico found 6,500 pounds of marijuana hidden in the truck’s cargo of strawberry jam. The pot had an estimated value of $3.25 million.
The next day, on December 21, a truckload of fresh produce driven by a 46-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico was sidelined after a team of CBP officers and a drug-sniffing dog found more than 2,400 pounds of marijuana that had been hidden in the truck’s cargo of watermelons. The marijuana was valued at $1.2 million.
The final two Nogales international border drug busts of 2016 were on December 23, at the Mariposa and DeConcini Ports of Entry.
The first drug interdiction on that Friday was at the Nogales DeConcini Port of Entry, where CBP officers and their drug-sniffing canine discovered 19 pounds of methamphetamine and nine pounds of heroin in a Dodge hatchback. A 35-year-old Tucson woman was driving the vehicle, and the drugs were estimated to have a value of more than $209,000.
Later that day, CBP officers stopped a Dodge truck that was passing through the Nogales Mariposa Port of Entry. They found no drugs in the vehicle, but the 26-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico who was driving the truck had packages of drugs taped to his calves and midsection. Officials seized five pounds of methamphetamine, valued at $15,000.
All vehicles, cargo and drugs were seized, and the suspects were apprehended and referred to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations unit for processing.
Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
