MEXICO CITY: Nearly $300,000 worth of methamphetamine was seized in three separate arrests at ports of entry along the US Mexico border, according to a Customs and Border Protection statement.
A narcotics-detecting dog alerted officers in Nogales, Ariz. to the rear cargo area of an SUV driven by 40-year-old Jose Joaquin Fuentes-Balbastro, a Mexican national, according to the statement. In the SUV, agents found 47 pounds of methamphetamine valued at nearly $140,000, the statement said.
Officers at a different crossing in Nogales discovered 36.5 pounds of methamphetamine worth nearly $110,000 in the wheel wells of an SUV. Agents arrested Latasha Monae Velasco, 25, of Nogales, in connection with the find, the statement said.
The following day, a 39-year-old San Luis man was arrested by agents after they found over 13 pounds of methamphetamine valued at more than $40,000 within the transfer case of a truck, the statement said.
All of the vehicles and drugs were seized, and the suspects were referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
