UNITED STATES—U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents working with the United States Marine Corporation (USMC) successfully apprehended a group of illegal aliens smuggling drugs into the country.

According to CBP website, the USMC assisted the CBP in apprehending the group while on a temporary detail assignment using detection and surveillance techniques.

On Tuesday, March 12, the USMC detected the group east of Dateland, Arizona while running surveillance in the region. USMC notified CBP of their find and apprehended six Mexican nationals and four Honduran nationals, along with approximately 286 pounds of marijuana with a street value of over $143,000.

All 10 individuals were in the United States illegally and were apprehended at the Yuma, Arizona sector. They will be prosecuted for drug smuggling and immigration violations.

126 lbs. Of Marijuana Seized From Drug Smugglers

On Wednesday, March 13 during a briefing of drug trafficking on the southern border, President Trump called Director of the Houston, Texas High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Mike McDaniel.

“We just recently, in Arizona, had a seizure of 29,000 counterfeit OxyContin and fentanyl tablets that actually contained fentanyl. And it was an Arizona HIDTA task force that seized these, and they seized them up in Phoenix, Arizona,” said McDaniel.

“As a matter of fact, the Arizona HIDTA just last week had to issue an alert about teenagers overdosing on counterfeit OxyContin pills. So, how many of those pills are actually making it in our community is really the scary thing to focus on”

“One of the most important things I believe that we do — and working with our partners at CBP and Border Patrol — is to try to connect the dots. When there are seizures along the border, the most important thing law enforcement can do is connect the dots and actually identify the cartels that those drugs are coming from so that we can dismantle those drug trafficking organizations and, more importantly, criminally prosecute them in U.S. courts,” said McDaniel.