AZ-BP agents rescue 3 Mexicans, separately find pot haul

BP agents rescue 3 Mexicans, separately find pot haul
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.14.2008
Border Patrol agents rescued a woman and her two small daughters after the three became lost in the desert on the Tohono O'odham Reservation Tuesday.
The agents also found more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana in a van Wednesday morning in Cochise County.
The rescue began Tuesday morning when the Pinal County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from a woman who said she and her two children were lost in the desert southwest of the village of Cowlic on the Tohono O'odham Reservation, said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Cowlic is about 65 miles southwest of Tucson.
The call was patched through to the Border Patrol, which launched a ground and air rescue that included agents of Borstar, the agency's search, trauma and rescue team. At noon, they found the woman, 21, of Sonora, Mexico, and her daughters, 2 and 4, in good condition, Daniels said.
Its unclear how they became lost, he said. They were taken to the law-enforcement center at San Miguel, processed and then given voluntary return to Mexico.
From October through July, agents in the Tucson Sector had rescued 382 illegal immigrants, compared with 523 the previous year, agency figures show.
The drug seizure occurred 3:45 a.m. Wednesday on Rucker Canyon Road, about 50 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, north of Douglas, where agents spotted a van being driven erratically at high speeds.
They attempted to stop the van, but the driver pulled to the side of the road and jumped out. In the van, agents found 23 bundles of marijuana weighing a total of 1,005 pounds, Daniels said.
Shortly after, they found the driver, a U.S. citizen, and arrested her. The van and the marijuana were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
From October through July, agents in the Tucson Sector had seized 719,749 pounds of marijuana, down 6 percent from the previous similar period's 766,337 pounds, agency figures show.
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