NOGALES — Border officers found more than 300 packages of fentanyl hidden inside folding chairs in the bed of a pickup truck at the Port of Nogales, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
A 36-year-old U.S. citizen driving a 2006 Nissan Titan back from Mexico was referred to secondary inspection on Nov. 3, according to CBP, as reported by Arizona’s Family.
Officers ran a non-intrusive inspection scan that revealed irregularities in folding chairs in the truck bed, and a CBP canine alerted to the presence of narcotics, the agency said.
When officers searched the chairs, they found the packages of fentanyl inside, weighing a combined 112 pounds, according to CBP.
CBP did not say what happened to the driver, and the agency did not release his name.
“This exceptional interception highlights the relentless vigilance of our frontline personnel, the immense value of our canine units, and the critical role that advanced NII technology and modernized infrastructure play in our operations,” said Roque Caza, director of field operations for CBP’s Tucson Field Office, in an emailed statement.
Caza added that the agency is “aggressively disrupting transnational criminal networks and stopping deadly narcotics from reaching our communities.”
Nogales is one of the busiest land ports on the U.S.-Mexico border and handles large volumes of passenger and commercial traffic every day. Ports of entry in Arizona regularly report large fentanyl seizures, and federal officials have said most of the drug entering the country comes through official crossings rather than between them.
NII refers to non-intrusive inspection, the scanning equipment officers use to see inside vehicles without unloading them.
Sources: Arizona’s Family. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
