Two women are facing smuggling charges after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers say they tried to smuggle fentanyl and methamphetamine into Arizona in separate weekend incidents.
On Friday, officers at the pedestrian crossing at Dennis DeConcini port sent a 32-year-old woman for further inspection after a CBP canine alerted to a scent. Officers recovered more than a half-pound fentanyl, which she had hidden in a body cavity and her underwear. The fentanyl had an estimated value of $19,000, the agency said in a news release.
On Saturday afternoon, officers working the Morley pedestrian crossing sent a 44-year-old woman for a further search after a canine alerted to a scent. Officers found about a third of a pound of methamphetamine concealed within a feminine hygiene product. The methamphetamine was valued at more than $1,000, the agency said in a news release.
Both women were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
In similar cases last week, the agency said a 40-year-old woman was searched July 20 at the Nogales border crossing, after a canine alert and officers found a half-pound of methamphetamine from a body cavity. The methamphetamine had an estimated value of $1,400, the agency said.
The same day officers at the Morley pedestrian crossing a 25-year-old woman was sent for further inspection after a canine alert and a half-pound package of methamphetamine was removed from a body cavity. The methamphetamine was valued at about $1,400.
Those two women also were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the agency says.
