PHARR/HIDALGO | COCAINE BUSTS

PHARR/HIDALGO -- Customs and Border Protection officers in Hidalgo County seized close to 80 pounds of cocaine after three unrelated coke busts last week.

The drugs had an estimated street value of $2,425,000.

The first bust occured when man tried to smuggle 20 pounds of cocaine through the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge on Dec. 5. Jose Ernesto Arroyo-Davila, a Mexican citizen from Rio Bravo, Tamps. was driving a 1992 Buick Skylark when a narcotic detector dog sniffed out seven packages of the drug hidden inside a secret compartment within the vehicle. Arroyo-Davila, 25, was arrested.

Two days later officers arrested two men during a seizure at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge. Rafael Navarro-Falcon, 22, a Mexican citizen from Hillsboro, Oregon, was driving a 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche when officers searched the vehicle and found 19 packages holding 47 pounds of cocaine inside the vehicle's firewall. Navarro-Falcon and passenger Rudy A. Perez-Samayoa, 49, a Guatemalan citizen from Portland, Oregon, were arrested.

On Monday, CBP officers found nearly 13 pounds of cocaine inside a northbound 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge. The driver, Pablo Antonio Garcia-Ortiz, 19, a Mexican citizen from Reynosa, was arrested on federal drug charges.

The four men remain in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. All but Garcia-Ortiz have appeared before a U.S. magistrate. The vehicles and the cocaine were seized by CBP.

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Monitor staff writers Jared Janes and Ana Ley compiled this report.

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