Press Release from US Customs and Border Protection July 7, 2011:

Record Number of Body Carriers Apprehended at Arizona Ports

Four in one day at San Luis Port

TUCSON, Ariz. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at Arizona ports have apprehended 295 body carriers to date for Fiscal Year 2011 (Oct. 1, 2010 to present). “Body carriers” are individuals who attempt to smuggle drugs by strapping packages to their bodies, under their clothes.

“Apprehensions of body carriers highlight our officers’ attention to detail,” stated David P. Higgerson, director of Field Operations in Tucson. “Our ability to detect this type of deception, identify what is out of the norm, is critical to the success of CBP operations, and ultimately meeting our mission goals.”

The most recent body carrier apprehensions occurred yesterday at the San Luis Port, with the first occurring yesterday morning. A CBP officer screening people crossing on foot noticed a 17-year-old female had inconsistencies in her travel itinerary and manner of clothing. The officer referred her for a secondary inspection resulting in the discovery of five packages of methamphetamine weighing close to four pounds. The estimated street value is $60,000. The teenager, a U.S. citizen living in San Luis, Sonora, was taken into custody and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for further investigation.

The second interception involved two young males: one a U.S. citizen, the other a permanent resident. A CBP officer screening people crossing on foot late in the afternoon stopped the pair as they attempted to cross. Due to inconsistencies in their behavior, the officer referred them for a secondary inspection where each subject was found to have one package of marijuana taped to the lower abdomen area. The narcotics weighed more than one pound each and have a total street value of $1,200. The subjects, in their late teens to early twenties and residing in San Luis, Sonora, were turned over to the San Luis Police Department for further investigation.

The third incident occurred later in the evening when a CBP officer stopped a 20-year-old Mexican woman from San Luis, Sonora, as she attempted to cross on foot. Due to inconsistencies in her travel itinerary and manner of clothing, the officer referred her for a secondary search where two packages of methamphetamine were found strapped to the woman’s body. The packages, weighing more than two pounds, have an estimated street value of $35,000. The subject was taken into custody and turned over to ICE HSI for further investigation.

These most recent body-carrier apprehensions bring the total to 295 for this fiscal year, 50 more than all of FY 2010.

Since launching the Southwest Border Initiative in March 2009, the Department of Homeland Security has engaged in an unprecedented effort to bring focus and intensity to Southwest border security, coupled with a reinvigorated, smart and effective approach to enforcing immigration laws in the interior of our country.

A criminal complaint is simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Office of Field Operations is responsible for securing our borders at the ports of entry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers’ primary mission is anti-terrorism. They screen all people, vehicles and goods entering the United States, while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel crossing the border. Their mission also includes carrying out traditional border-related responsibilities, including narcotics interdiction, enforcing immigration law, protecting the nation’s food supply and agriculture industry from pests and diseases, and enforcing trade laws.

-CBP-

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation’s borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

COMMENT: Learning a lot of terms…first “non factory installed compartments” for the places dope is hidden in trucks and cars and now “body carriers”.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 8th, 2011 at 2:24 pm and is filed under customs and border protection, drug smuggling, politics. Tags for this post: CBP, drug smuggling, us customs and border protection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.