Two Mexican nationals were arrested in separate weekend incidents for attempting to smuggle more than $1,674,000 in unreported U.S. currency into Mexico through Nogales ports.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers conducting outbound inspections at the Dennis DeConcini port referred Cosme Barcelo-Quijada, 56, a legal permanent resident alien residing in Yuma, for further inspection Sunday morning. During the search of Barcelo’s Toyota truck, a CBP canine trained to detect currency located numerous packages of unreported funds in the dashboard and inside the roof compartment. The vehicle and cash, totaling more than $1,660,000, were processed for seizure.
Saturday afternoon, officers at the Mariposa port referred Jose Luis Verastica-Munoz, 34, of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico for further inspection of his Toyota sedan prior to his U.S. departure. After a CBP canine alerted to the presence of hidden currency, officers searched Verastica’s person and vehicle and removed packages of unreported currency from his waistband and the vehicle’s dashboard. The vehicle and $14,000 cash were processed for seizure.
“Our officers in Nogales regularly produce results,” Director of Tucson Field Operations David Higgerson said. ”They did a great job in this seizure of $1.6 million which appears to be the highest seizure yet for the state of Arizona.”