TUCSON, AZ – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a female U.S. citizen at the Arizona Port of San Luis. According to officers, the female was attempting to smuggle drugs taped to her rolls of fat.

During crossing, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the San Luis Pedestrian Crossing, referred the woman for further examination upon her entrance from Mexico into the U.S. during the early morning hours Sunday.

It was a drug-sniffing dog who alerted the officials that the woman deserved a closer look. In doing so, officials found concealed packages taped onto her body. However, the woman did voluntarily submit to the packages’ removal. Evidently, she realized at a certain point that attempting to keep evading detection was a fool’s errand.

Thousands of Dollars of Drugs Confiscated

Border officials peeled off the packages strapped tightly to her rolls of fat. Inside the packages turned out to be one-third of a pound of cocaine. Finally, that’s a street value of around $8,700. That’s a pretty serious amount of drugs, although many smugglers try to get more across the border.

The woman was detained by the authorities at the border. Later she was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security. She’ll face smuggling charges from federal authorities once they sort out the evidence.

Drug smuggling across the Mexican border has been an ongoing headache for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security. In 2016 in San Diego alone, border patrol agents seized over 83,000 kilograms of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin from its ports of entry in the area.

Further illustration of how deep the problem is, the U.S. Coast Guard estimated that in 2017, 2,738 tons of drugs entered the U.S. via sea in 2017. And this number only reflects an estimate for one avenue to get drugs into the U.S. The actual tonnage of drugs that people smuggle into the U.S. each year is likely much higher.