Man, two juveniles busted after alleged drainage tunnel drug run

Posted: Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:08 pm | Updated: 4:20 pm, Thu Sep 26, 2013.
Nogales International

A Mexican man and two juveniles who were discovered near downtown late Tuesday covered in mud, smelling of raw sewage and wearing headlamps were detained on suspicion of smuggling drugs through the city’s storm drain system.
Ruben Borboa-Ibarra, 23, made his initial appearance at U.S. District Court in Tucson on Wednesday, where he was charged with conspiracy to smuggle marijuana, and using a tunnel or passageway to smuggle narcotics.

The two juveniles, who were allegedly found sitting next to three bundles of marijuana, were not charged, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Instead, they were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol.

According to the criminal complaint, officers from the ICE-led Nogales BEST Tunnel Task Force were conducting surveillance at approximately 9 p.m. Tuesday in a suspected contraband smuggling area on the west side of town when a Border Patrol agent heard people enter the United States from Mexico through the cross-border sewage system.

The agent could hear people speaking Spanish in the drainage tunnels, and determined that the voices were moving west under West International Street.
By approximately 10 p.m., the agent could no longer hear the voices.

“Within minutes, another agent using an infrared optic observed two subjects walking up a hill toward 48 West Hereford Drive from the drainage area under West International Street, carrying what appeared to be large bags,” the complaint says.

Agents from the BEST Tunnel Task Force approached the hill from Hereford Drive and reportedly discovered Borboa-Ibarra hiding in an open shed directly behind 48A West Hereford. The two juveniles were sitting on the side of the hill next to three large burlap bags.

“All three subjects were wearing headlamps and were covered in mud, and smelled of raw sewage,” the complaint says.

The burlap bags were later found to contain more than 38 pounds of marijuana, ICE said.

The Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) is an ICE Homeland Security Investigations-led, multiagency U.S. Department of Homeland Security initiative to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations that seek to exploit vulnerabilities along U.S. borders. The BEST Nogales Tunnel Task Force is composed of full-time members from ICE HSI; U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol; the Nogales Police Department, the Santa Cruz County HIDTA Task Force; and the DEA.

“The BEST Nogales Tunnel Task Force is responsible for identifying, investigating and eliminating illicit subterranean tunnels in one of the nation’s busiest border areas with Mexico and combating the transnational criminal organizations that finance, build and use them,” ICE said.

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