STANFIELD: Two Maricopa women were among seven people arrested last week by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, suspected of smuggling marijuana following an early-morning traffic stop along Interstate 8, authorities said.
PCSO deputies stopped two vehicles for traffic violations on I-8 east of State Route 84. One vehicle, a Jeep Cherokee, was found to contain four bundles of marijuana, weighing a total of 195 pounds, the PCSO said in a release. Three occupants, the driver and two Mexican nationals, were arrested for drug smuggling.
The second vehicle, a Chevrolet SUV, was traveling with the Jeep and occupied by four persons, three of which were Mexican nationals linked to packing the marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico a few days prior.
All seven were arrested for drug smuggling and held in the Pinal County jail in Florence.
The driver of the Jeep was identified as Shanna Marie Calderon, 27, of Maricopa. The driver of the Chevrolet SUV was identified as Camisha L. Fryer, 20, also of Maricopa. The other five suspects are adult men from Mexico, PCSO said.
Earlier in the week, Border Patrol agents arrested 18 people in separate incidents along the I-8 corridor.
Agents arrested Jenri Bludimir Cartajena, an 18-year-old male U.S. citizen from Chattahoochee, Florida, for attempting to smuggle six illegal immigrants around Wellton Station’s checkpoint on I-8 east of Yuma, on Dec. 14.
On Dec. 15, agents arrested 11 illegal immigrants and seized 1,017 pounds of marijuana. The group was attempting to smuggle the marijuana through the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge, near Yuma Sector’s forward operating base, Camp Grip, Dec. 15. The drugs were valued at an estimated $508,500.
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