About 4 million blue fentanyl pills were seized at the border crossing in Lukeville making it the largest single fentanyl seizure in the history of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency said.
The massive fentanyl seizure occurred July 1, but the agency did not disclose it publicly until this week.
Two days after the fentanyl bust, the agency carried out a second seizure of almost 300 pounds of methamphetamine at the same border crossing, the agency said in a news release.
In the fentanyl seizure, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen drove a 2011 pick-up truck with a sport recreational vehicle on a utility trailer to the Port of Lukeville and officers noted anomalies in the frame of the trailer during the initial inspection, the news release says. A canine team was called in for additional help.
In all, 234 packages of drugs, containing about 4 million blue fentanyl pills, were found hidden in the frame of the trailer, the release said.
The driver was not identified.
A couple of days later at the same port, a 45-year-old Mexican man was found hiding 39 packages of methamphetamine and about five pounds of cocaine in a 2007 Ford pickup truck that was towing a utility trailer. The packages carried about 272 pounds of methamphetamine.
The estimated street value of the two drug seizures was $12.6 million, the release said.
Arizona is the busiest route for cross-border fentanyl smuggling into the United States, CBP data show.
The announcement of the massive fentanyl seizure happened the same week that JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, was campaigning in Arizona. On Thursday Vance went to Cochise County to tour the border.
