“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Port of Lukeville recently seized approximately 4 million blue fentanyl pills, weighing more than 1,000 pounds (over 450 kilos), in the largest singular fentanyl seizure in CBP history.On July 1, a 20-year-old Arizona man, who is a U.S. citizen, arrived at the Port of Lukeville driving a 2011 pick-up truck which was hauling a sport recreational vehicle on a utility trailer. CBP officers performing the inspection for entry to the U.S. sent the driver and vehicles aside for a more intensive inspection.
While conducting a thorough inspection of the pick-up truck, trailer, and sport utility vehicle, CBP officers noticed anomalies throughout the frame of the trailer. With the assistance of a CBP canine team, officers discovered 234 packages of drugs concealed within the frame of a trailer. The packages contained approximately 4 million blue fentanyl pills, which is the largest fentanyl seizure in CBP history.
Guadalupe Ramirez, Director of Field Operations, Tucson Field Office, commended the Port of Lukeville on this record-breaking drug seizure. “This is an enormous amount of dangerous drugs that officers at the Port of Lukeville prevented from reaching communities throughout the United States.”
These record-breaking fentanyl seizures were made in furtherance of Operation Apollo-Arizona and Operation Plaza Spike. Operation Apollo-Arizona is a counter-fentanyl joint operation with a focus on intelligence collection. This CBP-led operation concentrates law enforcement efforts on disrupting drug and chemical supply, collecting and sharing intelligence, and leveraging valuable partnerships. Operation Apollo-Arizona builds on previous actions to further strengthen enforcement intelligence on trafficking networks, including the routes used and their operational logistics.
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Operation Plaza Spike targets the plaza bosses and cartels that facilitate the flow of deadly fentanyl and other illicit synthetic drugs. It is designed to disrupt operations in the “plazas,” cartel territories located directly south of the United States that are natural logistical chokepoints within the cartels’ operations.
On April 10, 2024, CBP announced that it would lead an expanded, multi-agency effort to target the transnational criminals funneling fentanyl from Mexico into American communities.
CBP’s first target is the Nogales Plaza, located directly south of the border crossing at Nogales, Arizona. Sergio Valenzuela Valenzuela, aka Gio, the Nogales Plaza boss, was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2018 for his role as a Sinaloa Cartel Plaza Boss. He and his organization are responsible for 44% of the fentanyl being trafficked to the U.S., the deadliest drug we have yet to encounter.
The plazas are responsible for virtually everything that is smuggled into the United States. By targeting Gio and other plaza bosses for enforcement action, we can directly impact their operations and ability to traffic fentanyl into the United States, which make its way into communities all across the country.
On July 18, 2024, CBP announced the expansion of Operation Plaza Spike to the El Paso and Juarez.