Do yourself a favor: if you own a white conversion van, don't drive it near Nogales -- especially if you're carting around more than a ton of marijuana.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, last week, ICE agents saw a white conversion van sitting in a parking lot near a warehouse in Nogales. Because the van looked like vehicles often used to move drugs, agents started monitoring it and its occupants.
Shortly after putting the van under surveillance, a man got in and started to drive.
The van drove towards the warehouse, where it paused and then drove off again -- now, being followed by a Ford Expedition.
"The van conducted a counter-surveillance maneuver, followed closely by
the Expedition, which agents recognized as a common technique used by
drug smuggling organizations to avoid law enforcement," ICE says in a press
release.
Agents stopped the van, and the SUV, and their suspicions were correct:
in the back of the van was about 2,200 pounds of weed, which you can see
in the above photo.
The weed was seized and the drivers were arrested. ICE is continuing to
investigate the failed smuggling attempt and any organization that may
have been behind it.