NOGALES, Ariz. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents on Monday thwarted a major drug smuggling attempt and seized nearly a ton of marijuana from a cache in Rio Rico. .

During the course of a drug smuggling investigation, members of the HSI-led Santa Cruz County Intensive Drug Trafficking (HIDTA) Investigations Task Force received information Monday that a residence in Rio Rico was being used as a transit point for smuggled narcotics. Task force members, along with officers from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and the Nogales Police Department, responded to the scene and began conducting surveillance, then obtaining consent from the homeowner to search the home. Inside, authorities found 75 bundles of marijuana weighing more than 1,800 pounds.

No arrests have been made in this case and the investigation is ongoing.

The Santa Cruz County HIDTA Investigative Task Force is a multi-agency investigation and interdiction unit located in Nogales that targets organized crime and drug trafficking organizations in Santa Cruz County, targeting drug trafficking organizations and providers, local distributors, stash houses, and drug trafficking rooms. I’m fighting. The task force is comprised of full-time members from HSI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, the Santa Cruz County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Nogales Police Department.