Border Busts

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the Nogales Ports of Entry seized more than $4.4 million in narcotics in two days in March 2013. Combined, the seizures more than four tons. The driver of a tractor-trailer was arrested at the Nogales Commercial Facility when he tried to enter the US with more than three tons of pot in containers labeled as vacuum pumps and lamp holders. Officers found 6,219 pounds of pot worth more than $3.1 million. A day earlier, on March 12, the driver of a tractor-trailer was arrested after officers found more than a ton of pot, worth more than $1 million, in a shipment of bell peppers. In an unrelated incident March 13, officers at the Mariposa Port arrested Gilberto Vasquez Govea, 31, of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, for attempting to smuggle nearly 17 pounds of methamphetamine worth an estimated $263,252. Officers found the drugs under the rear seat of his Chevrolet SUV.