When authorities recently found 58 bundles of meth hidden inside a 20-year-old woman’s car, she claimed she had no idea they were there, as the vehicle was a gift from her boyfriend. The woman also claimed she was on a shopping trip.
She was busted with the drugs after she reportedly drew an inordinate amount of attention to herself at the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Arizona. According to Border Report, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer said a 2015 Hyundai Sonata crossed a buffer area and entered the inspection booth without permission while he was processing another driver attempting to enter the country from Mexico.
Acting suspiciously at the border is never a good idea
Noticing the vehicle, the CBP officer then approached the woman operating the Hyundai. She claimed to be an American citizen despite her car having registration plates from Sonora, Mexico. While speaking with her, the officer reported that she “seemed very hectic, as if she was in a hurry to go somewhere.”
He then discovered that neither the woman nor the car had recently crossed the border after reviewing their records. After that, the CBP officer referred her for a secondary inspection, during which an X-ray scan revealed abnormalities in the passenger rear panels and doors.
Those abnormalities turned out to be 58 plastic bundles containing 55.7 pounds of methamphetamine.
She forfeited her right to remain silent, according to court documents, and said the Hyundai was a gift from her boyfriend, whom she had only just met three months prior. Additionally, she claimed that the boyfriend “was very insistent” that she drive the automobile into the United States after registering it in her name in Mexico. She told CBP officers that she had repeatedly asked her boyfriend whether he was concealing anything in the vehicle, as she did not trust people easily. Of course, he denied it.
During the seizure, a Homeland Security Investigations agent requested authorization to search the woman’s cellphone. The device had texts indicating that she had messaged her boyfriend, saying she was reluctant to take the vehicle across the border. She also reportedly texted him before CBP X-rayed the Hyundai.
After turning over her case to prosecutors, they charged her with conspiracy, illegal importation of methamphetamine, and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. She is the only defendant in the case.