Border agents seize nearly $3.8M in pot in week's haul

Posted Jan 30, 2015

Paul Ingram
TucsonSentinel.com

Customs and Border ProtectionMore than 2,000 pounds of marijuana worth $1 million found stuffed into an abandoned Chevy Suburban by Border Patrol agents on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
Customs and Border ProtectionIn a Nogales-area warehouse, Border Patrol agents and Nogales Police following a tip found 4,220 pounds of marijuana worth $2.1 million.

Seizures by Border Patrol agents on the Tohono O'odham Nation and at a Nogales-area warehouse brought in nearly $3.8 million in marijuana weighing more than 7,000 pounds in a single week.

On Wednesday, Jan. 21 agents near the Tohono O'odham Village of Newfield, about 23 miles south of Sells, followed a Ford truck after it turned down a road running parallel to the U.S.-Mexico border, a news release said.

When the vehicle's two occupants realized Border Patrol agents were behind them, they bailed out and crossed into Mexico on foot. Inside the truck, agents found more than 500 pounds of marijuana worth around $256,000, the release said.

That Friday, Border Patrol agents from the Nogales station and the Nogales Police Department received a tip that there was a "discrepancy in a manifest and cargo" at the Citizen’s Express Line Warehouse in Nogales.

The investigation turned up 4,220 pounds of marijuana worth approximately $2.1 million. Nogales Police Department took custody of the drugs and an investigation is ongoing, according to the agency.

In Ajo, Border Patrol agents on Wednesday night noticed a black Chevrolet Tahoe driving without lights near the Tohono O'odham village of Charco, 48 miles northwest of Sells.

Agents watched the vehicle pull of the road into a thicket and went to investigate, discovering the vehicle abandoned and stuffed with more than 788 pounds of marijuana worth around $394,000, the release said.

Later that evening, agents received a call about an abandoned vehicle. The agents found an abandoned Chevy Suburban near Sil Nakya, 21 miles north of Sells, hidden in the brush and covered with a tarp. Inside the vehicle, agents discovered more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana worth more than $1 million.

Agents seized the vehicles under the agency's guidelines, and the drugs seized by the Border Patrol were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Agency.