Arizona Man Arrested for Drug Smuggle Bust
DOUGLAS – Two Arizona men were caught attempting to smuggle thousands of dollars of marijuana near Tucson.
Customs and Border Protection officials arrested a 65-year-old Douglas man who attempted to sneak marijuana taped underneath his arms.
The 65-year-old Arizona man reportedly had more than three pounds of marijuana underneath his armpits, worth $1,600.
A 32-year-old Phoenix man was also arrested at the Douglas border crossing after he was found with 114 pounds of marijuana in the quarter panels and fuel tank of his vehicle.
The drugs were worth around $57,000.
Both men were turned over to officials and the evidence was seized
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Arizona officials have arrested 76 people suspected in the smuggling of at least $2 billion worth of drugs through the state’s western desert in coordination with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
“We in Arizona continue to stand and fight the Mexican drug cartels, who think they own the place,” Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in a statement about the investigation, dubbed Operation Pipeline Express.
“While this is a historic drug bust, sadly this represents only a fraction of what my deputies face every day,” Babeu said.
The arrests were made during a series of recent raids.
Officials said the ring, based in Chandler, Stanfield and Maricopa, used backpackers and trucks to move drugs from the border to a network of stash houses in the Phoenix area. After arriving in Phoenix, the smugglers sold the drugs, which included marijuana, cocaine and heroin, to distributors from various states.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the smugglers succeeded at first because they had established control over an 80-mile stretch of the border from Yuma to Sells, Ariz.
“They had gained a virtual monopoly over a swath of the Arizona border,” she said.
Kice said investigators believe some of those arrested are U.S.-based bosses in the Sinaloa cartel.
“Through our joint efforts, we’ve sent a resounding message to the Mexican cartels that Arizona is off limits to their operatives,” Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in Arizona, said in a statement.
Officials posted video from the investigation online, including surveillance video of trucks being loaded and driven down desert roads, Border Patrol officers inspecting a roofing truck packed with large bricks of marijuana, and sheriff’s teams making arrests during nighttime raids.
The 17-month investigation, which began with a traffic stop by Pinal County sheriff’s deputies, included three “large-scale enforcement actions”: one last week, another earlier this month and a third last month, according to ICE.
During last week’s raids, authorities seized more than 2 tons of marijuana, 19 weapons and nearly $200,000 in cash, the agency said. It estimates that the drug ring smuggled more than 3.3 million pounds of marijuana, 20,000 pounds of cocaine and 10,000 pounds of heroin into the United States during the last five years.
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