Customs and Border Protection officers wrapped up their first seven days of November with seven arrested in separate attempts to smuggle more than $1 million in hard drugs through the Port of Nogales.
Officers at the DeConcini crossing started the month by seizing more than 20 pounds of meth on Nov. 1 valued in excess of $60,000, after a drug canine alerted them to the dashboard area of a Chevy sedan driven by a 22-year-old Phoenix woman. That same afternoon, officers at the Mariposa crossing were alerted to a Mazda sedan, driven by a 64-year-old man from Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico, containing almost 37 pounds of cocaine worth more than $418,000.
Then on Nov. 3, officers working at the Mariposa crossing referred a 20-year-old Rio Rico woman for a secondary inspection after one of their canines alerted to the front bumper of a Ford sedan. Officers found more than 23 pounds of meth worth in excess of $70,000.
On Nov. 5, a CBP canine assisted officers at the same crossing in the discovery of almost 38 pounds of meth in a Toyota sedan driven by a 28-year-old woman from Mesa, Arizona. Officers estimate the drugs to be worth more than $113,000.
On Nov. 6, a CBP canine working alongside officers at the Mariposa crossing helped locate nearly 10 pounds of meth, worth close to $29,000, within the muffler of a Nissan sedan driven by a 29-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora.
Later that day, officers at the Dennis DeConcini crossing, also working with a drug canine, found more than 29 pounds of cocaine in a Nissan sedan driven by a 30-year-old woman from Nogales, Sonora. Officers located the drugs, valued in excess of $330,000, in the vehicle’s front and rear bumpers.
Officers working at the Mariposa crossing on the same day referred a 25-year-old woman from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, for a secondary inspection of her Jeep SUV and found almost 12 pounds of meth, worth close to $35,000, beneath the front seats.
Officers seized all drugs and vehicles used in the smuggling attempts, and turned the subjects over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
