Record marijuana seizures this fiscal year in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, which includes most of Arizona, have officials lauding stepped-up border enforcement as the reason for their success.
Agents have confiscated more than 1 million pounds of pot with an estimated street value of more than $800 million. That’s more marijuana than has been seized in any Border Patrol sector in the agency’s history, officials said Tuesday.
The number reflects more than a third of all marijuana collared nationally by Border Patrol agents this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
Mike Scioli, a patrol spokesman, said the record is the result of improved tactics, increased personnel and more secure enforcement infrastructure, such as the border fence and checkpoints.
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The number reflects more than a third of all marijuana collared nationally by Border Patrol agents this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
Mike Scioli, a patrol spokesman, said the record is the result of improved tactics, increased personnel and more secure enforcement infrastructure, such as the border fence and checkpoints.
“Having more manpower out there, that’s huge,” he said. “The fence helps stop vehicles. The checkpoints, that’s been a huge success, too.”
Scioli said there’s no way to tell whether the increase signifies a general upswing in drug smuggling across the Mexican border.
Tuesday’s announcement came as Homeland Security border czar Alan Bersin visited Nogales.
Scioli said the bulk of the pot busts were abandoned loads. Smugglers drive cars filled with dope or walk their loads across the border and leave them in the desert for another runner to pick up.
But the increased enforcement, he added, makes it tougher for drug cartels to smuggle narcotics across the border this way, so they resort to more creative tactics such as temporary bridges or tunnels. The 16 tunnels found this year mark the most ever found, he said.
“Obviously, they’re hurting because they have to come up with all these little creative ways to adapt to our enforcement,” Scioli said.
“We hit them where it hurts, and it’s really in their profits.”
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Border Patrol marijuana seizures on a national scale are up 52.2
percent compared with the same period last fiscal year. And between October and July, Border Patrol agents have confiscated more than 3.3 million pounds of drugs nationwide, an increase of 64.3 percent compared to the same period last year.
These busts include more than 2.6 million pounds of marijuana, 60,411pounds of cocaine, 4,384 pounds of methamphetamine and 1,463 pounds of heroin.
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