West Desert Task Force finds nearly $1.165 million in abandoned drugs | Crime

Yesterday morning the ‘West Desert Task Force’ made a big drug seizure, netting over 1,550 pounds of marijuana worth nearly $1,165,500. 

The bundles were discovered, according to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, in an apparently abandoned Chevy Suburban, which had been originally located by the PCSO’s Aviation Unit, off I-8 near Stanfield Road.  According to reports the SUV was covered with a tarp and hidden in the brush. 

According to PCSO Task Force personnel conducted a search of the area, but were unable to locate any suspects.  Both the drugs and the vehicle were seized and brought in for processing. 

The West Desert Task Force is made up of U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office to combat narcotics trafficking in the West Desert region of Arizona. The task force is supported by the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and works in association with the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats (ACTT) and its participating agencies.

Sheriff Paul Babeu stated in a recent news release on the drug bust, “Cooperation with our local ICE Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol agents is key to all of our efforts to combat drug and human smuggling. No agency can make this happen alone. During the past several years, the problem hasn’t slowed down, the border is not fully secure and the drug cartels from Mexico continue to rebuild even after they are met with the heavy hands of enforcement.”

“The Border Patrol continues to work in conjunction with our local law enforcement partners to combat transnational criminal organizations’ efforts to operate in southern Arizona,” said Tucson Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla, Jr. in the same release. “I am proud of the men and women who protect our country by serving in a law enforcement capacity. By stopping drug shipments such as this, we all move closer to achieving our common goal of securing the border and making our communities safer.”