Tucson, Ariz. – Drug trafficking organizations do not take a holiday break and neither does the Border Patrol. While many citizens were doing last minute shopping before the holiday, Border Patrol agents were working diligently to seize 1,654 pounds of marijuana and arrest an illegal immigrant hidden in the trunk of a vehicle.
At the I-19 checkpoint on Friday, a canine unit alert on a Ford Mustang driven by a United States citizen resulted in the discovery of an illegal immigrant hidden in the trunk of the vehicle.
In a separate incident on Saturday, agents responded to detection technology in the Nogales area and encountered a White Chevrolet Tahoe with what appeared to be a government license plate. When agents attempted to make contact, the vehicle sped from the area. Shortly thereafter, the driver abandoned the vehicle near the border and absconded into Mexico. Agents found that the vehicle was not owned by the government and the license plate was fictitious. There were also 86 bundles of marijuana inside the vehicle worth $827,000.
All drugs and vehicles were processed for seizure and individuals were processed for prosecution and/or removal proceedings in accordance with Tucson Sector prosecution guidelines.
The Tucson Sector Border Patrol strives to secure America’s borders through the disruption and degrading of transnational criminal organizations. Border security is a joint effort between Customs and Border Protection, other law-enforcement partners and community stakeholders.
