Customs and Border Protection officers arrested three people earlier this week for their alleged involvement in separate attempts to smuggle a combined 102 pounds of heroin and methamphetamine through the Port of Nogales.
Officers working with a CBP narcotics-detection canine on Dec. 12 at the Dennis DeConcini crossing found more than 70 pounds of meth, worth an estimated $213,000, in a Hyundai SUV driven by a 30-year-old Mexican man living legally in Nogales, Arizona.
At about the same time, officers working with a canine at the Mariposa crossing found 3 pounds of heroin and 8 pounds of meth, with a combined value exceeding $76,000, in an Acura SUV driven by a 24-year-old Mexican woman from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Again with the help of a CBP canine, officers at the Mariposa crossing on Dec. 11 found 6 pounds of heroin and 5 pounds of meth in a Ford van driven by a 44-year-old Mexican man from Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. The drugs have a combined value of almost $120,000.
Officers seized the drugs and vehicles, and turned all three subjects over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.