Two ton-sized loads of marijuana caught in Nogales

Posted Jun 4, 2015

Paul Ingram
TucsonSentinel.com

CBPNearly 2,000 pounds of marijuana found stashed into the roof of a tractor-trailer, the second such bust made at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales in the last 10 days.

In the last two weeks, Customs and Border Protection officers made two nearly identical busts, in each case seizing nearly 2,000 pounds of marijuana hidden in the ceilings of produce trucks bound for the Mariposa Port in Nogales, authorities said.

On Tuesday, officers arrested a 43-year old Mexican man from Nogales, Son., after a drug dog led officers to 1,945 pounds of marijuana, worth an estimated $972,000, stuffed into the roof liner of a semi-tractor trailer, a press release from the agency said.

Just 10 days earlier, officers at the crossing discovered 1,992 pounds of marijuana worth nearly $996,000. The officers arrested Joel-Tautimez-Felix, 43 from Nogales, Son., after a drug dog alerted to the presence of drugs and officers uncovered 212 packages of marijuana hidden in the ceiling of the tractor-trailer he was driving.

The vehicles and drugs were seized, and both men were handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the release said.