Two U.S. citizens and one Mexican national were arrested by Nogales Border Patrol agents after finding nearly 150 pounds of methamphetamine during two separate incidents over the weekend at the Interstate 19 Immigration Checkpoint.
On Friday morning, an 18-year-old male Nogales resident driving a Dodge Ram was referred to secondary inspection after a U.S. Border Patrol canine alerted to an odor it was trained to detect. Agents discovered 53 packages of methamphetamine, weighing more than 58 pounds, hidden in the vehicle. The drugs were worth more than $175,260.
Almost 48 hours later, agents at the same checkpoint referred a 26-year-old Mexican female driver of a Dodge Grand Caravan and her 22-year-old female passenger from Rio Rico for secondary inspection, where agents discovered 38 packages of methamphetamine concealed in the vehicle. The narcotics, valued at approximately $271,140, weighed close to 90 pounds.
Agents arrested both drivers and the passenger of the van for drug smuggling and seized the methamphetamine and vehicles, all of which were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.