Federal agents in Nogales made a near-record seizure when they discovered about 14,800 pounds of marijuana hidden in a tractor-trailer rig on April 21.
The drugs were worth about $7.4 million, according to a Customs and Border Protection news release.
Agents at the Mariposa commercial facility sent a tractor-trailer rig driven by a 51-year-old Nogales, Sonora, man for a secondary inspection after a drug dog alerted to the vehicle.
Inside the trailer, mixed among a shipment of watermelons, agents found the packaged marijuana.
The drugs and rig were seized. The driver was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.
This represents the third-largest marijuana seizure at an Arizona port of entry, officials said.
According to Star archives, smugglers appear to favor watermelon shipments in their attempts to hide drugs crossing the border. Here are some recent large marijuana seizures at crossings involving watermelon shipments:
- June 2015 β 2,081 pounds
- December 2013 β 1,850 pounds
- November 2011 β 3,000 pounds
- April 2010 β 9,500 pounds
- June 2008 β 5,191 pounds
