Body is found, pot seized on border
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.01.2008
Ranch owners in Southeastern Arizona discovered the decomposed body of a suspected illegal immigrant Saturday. It was the only known border death over the weekend, bringing a temporary halt to a dizzying pace in border deaths in June along Arizona's stretch of U.S.-Mexico border.
Agents also seized 950 pounds of marijuana in an incident Friday evening in the same general border area east of Douglas.
Body found Saturday
The body was discovered at 11:50 a.m. Saturday near the New Mexico-Arizona line in Cochise County, about four miles north of the border, said Carol Capas, a Cochise County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. Owners of the Magoffin Ranch were burning brush and shrub as part of a prescribed burn when they found the decomposed body. Officials believe it was a woman, she said.
The owners contacted the Border Patrol and agents called Cochise County Sheriff's deputies, she said. The body was found in a wash north of Guadalupe Canyon Road, which runs east-west near the international border east of Douglas.
The woman wore blue jeans and black shoes and a red shirt was found nearby, she said. They found no identification, Capas said. The body was taken to the Cochise County Medical Examiner's Office, she said.
It was the only body found over the weekend, said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
From June 1 to June 26, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner handled 34 bodies of illegal immigrants, up from 26 through the same date range the year before, said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Bruce Parks. The Border Patrol had reported finding at least 19 bodies in that time frame in the agency's Tucson Sector.
950 pounds of pot seized
On Friday at 5:30 p.m., Border Patrol agents spotted two trucks driving west on Geronimo Trail east of Douglas, Daniels said. When the drivers realized they were spotted, they tried to head back south into Mexico. The Geronimo Trail is a heavily used drug- and people-smuggling road that runs parallel to the international line east of Douglas.
One truck made it back into Mexico, but the other rolled over, Daniels said. The driver ran into Mexico but left behind 43 bundles of marijuana. The bundles weighed 950 pounds, Daniels said.
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