Checkpoints, canines prove how important they are to the Border Patrol

Checkpoints, canines prove how important they are to the Border Patrol

Tuesday, October 18th 2016, 3:56 pm PDT
Tuesday, October 18th 2016, 4:08 pm PDT
By Elizabeth Walton, Digital Content Producer CONNECT

http://kold.images.worldnow.com/images/12195654_G.jpg
Border Patrol canine alerts to people in the trunk of a car at the I-19 checkpoint. (Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

http://kold.images.worldnow.com/images/12195655_G.jpgBundles of cocaine found in door panel of a Chevy truck. (Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

http://kold.images.worldnow.com/images/12195663_G.jpgBundles of cocaine found in door panel of a Chevy truck. (Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -Border checkpoints and alert canines are two crucial parts of the infrastructure that U.S. Customs and Border Protection relies on to help secure the border. The last two days show exactly how, with agents stopping drug and human smuggling at the I-19 checkpoint near Amado.

Tucson Sector BP agents discovered three illegal migrants in the trunk of a vehicle on Monday, Oct. 17, thanks to an alert from a BP canine. According to the release BP agents arrested the driver, who is a U.S. citizen and is now facing federal charges. The three people found in the trunk are from Mexico and are being processed according to CBP policy.

On Tuesday, Oct. 18, a truck was pulled for secondary inspection after a BP canine alerted to possible drugs in the vehicle. BP agents discovered several bundles of cocaine, weighing more than 55 pounds with an estimated value of $630,000, according to the release. The driver of the truck was arrested and now faces charges of drug smuggling.

http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/3...-border-patrol

by BOB PRICE
20 Oct 2016

Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector busted a human smuggler and a drug trafficker at an inland border checkpoint in Arizona over a two-day period this week.

Agents working at the Interstate 19 checkpoint in southern Arizona on October 17 were alerted to the presence of a smuggling attempt by a K-9 officer. The driver of a Hyundai Sonata had approached the checkpoint near Amado, Arizona. A K-9 alerted to the presence of something being smuggled in the trunk of the vehicle.

Agents had the driver opened the trunk and discovered three people locked inside the hot trunk of the car. The agents identified the human cargo as being three Mexican nationals. The driver of the car, a U.S. citizen, was arrested and turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for possible charges of human smuggling.

“The Mexican nationals are being processed in accordance with agency guidelines,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials wrote in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas.

The following day, the driver of a Chevrolet pickup truck approached the same inland checkpoint. The driver was asked to move the vehicle to a secondary inspection station after a K-9 alerted to the possible presence of drugs. A subsequent search of the truck revealed multiple bundles of drugs stashed inside the truck.

Agents determined the drugs to be more than 55 pounds of cocaine. Officials estimated the street value of the cocaine to be in excess of $630,000.

Border Patrol officials arrested the driver of the truck and seized the truck and the cocaine. The nationality of the driver was not disclosed by Border Patrol officials. He now faces possible federal charges of smuggling drugs.

Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection stated these inland checkpoints remain “a critical piece of infrastructure” for the interdiction of drugs and reducing the dangerous human smuggling practices of those packing human beings into the back of cars and trucks.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/...muggler-drugs/