Thread: AZ: Agents find body, seize 1/2 ton of dope near Nogales

Border Agents find woman's body, seize half ton of dope near Nogales

By Brady McCombs

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Border Patrol agents on Thursday discovered the body of a female illegal border crosser near Rio Rico, seized 1,150 pounds of marijuana east of Nogales and found out a man apprehended earlier in the week was a convicted sex offender.

Agents found the body of an adult female from Mexico on the Agua Fria Ranch west of Interstate 19 at kilometer post 17 at about 6 p.m. Thursday, said Richard DeWitt, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.

The search began after Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at about 4:45 p.m from a group of illegal border crossers who said they were lost and in need of help, he said. Santa Cruz County contacted the Border Patrol, who activated Borstar, the agency’s search, trauma and rescue unit, and a Customs and Border Protection helicopter.

Then, another call came in from a worker at the Agua Fria Ranch who said he had encountered a group of 12 who told him they wanted to turn themselves in to the Border Patrol. When Borstar agents arrived to the ranch a member of the group told them they had left a female behind deceased. They found her body shortly after, DeWitt said.

The woman was traveling with some of her children, DeWitt said. It is unknown how many there were or how old each is. They are with the Mexican Consulate in Nogales, he said.

This was at least the seventh body recovered in August by the Border Patrol. The agency recovered 154 bodies of illegal border crossers in the Tucson Sector from Oct. 1 through July 31, compared with 150 during the same time in 2006 and 186 through the same time in 2005.

The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner has handled the bodies of 171 suspected illegal border crossers since Jan. 1, well ahead of last year’s pace; 135 through Aug. 20, and more than in record-setting 2005, which had 153 through Aug. 20, said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner.

The drug seizure occurred Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in a small canyon located about two miles east of Nogales, less than one mile north of the international border, DeWitt said. Agents patrolling there on ATVs encountered several drug runners who fled, leaving behind 21 burlap bundles of marijuana weighing a total of 1,150 pounds, he said.

The 1,150 pounds has an estimated value of $1.15 million, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center. The drugs were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Agents in the Tucson Sector have seized 767,317 pounds of marijuana from Oct. 1 through July 31, a 32 percent increase from the same time in 2006.
The convicted sex offender, a 25-year-old man from Chiapas, Mexico, was apprehended at 10 p.m. Wednesday. A record check came back the next morning that revealed he had been convicted of statutory rape of a minor in July 2006 in Sampson County, North Carolina, DeWitt said.

After serving time in prison, he was deported in June this year. He’ll be prosecuted and deported for reentry of an aggravated felon, he said.
Border Patrol officials estimate that about 10 percent of the people they catch have criminal records. From Oct. 1 through July 31, 35,629 — or about 11 percent — of the 334,203 apprehensions made in the Tucson Sector were illegal entrants with criminal records, said DeWitt, citing the latest figures available.
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Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.


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Build the fence. We don't criminals from other countries. We have more than enough of our own. if our police and courts don't have to deal with illegals then maybe America would be safer.