EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Border officers in Nogales, Arizona, seized nearly a million fentanyl pills during various events over a 30-day period ending Sept. 24.
Smugglers were bringing the potentially deadly blue pills from Mexico into the United States stashed in vehicles, hidden in luggage or strapped to their bodies.
More than half a million pills were seized on the week ending Sept. 2, according to federal court filings and social media postings by Nogales U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Director Laura E. Hermosillo.
The largest known single seizure took place on Sept. 19, when CBP officers located inside a vehicle dozens of small bundles containing 30 pounds of methamphetamine and 177,800 fentanyl pills.
On Sept. 11, a pedestrian hauling what he said was luggage arrived at a Nogales border crossing; a CBP officer sent him to a secondary inspection area and found footlong plastic bags with 164,800 fentanyl pills.
On the same pedestrian lanes, CBP officers decided to investigate a “traveler” with 21,517 blue pills strapped to the torso on Sept. 6. A day after, another individual had tried to walk across the same border crossing with 22,875 pills strapped to the length of their thighs.
Fentanyl seizures – just like migrant encounters – fell drastically during fiscal year 2025, according to data from CBP.
But the Tucson Field Office, which includes Nogales, has seen fentanyl seizure events steadily rising since May.
On July 7, Homeland Security Investigations announced it had partnered with Mexico to take down five members of a Nogales, Sonora-based criminal organization trafficking fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and meth. Seven alleged U.S.-based collaborators of the same organization were previously indicted in federal court.
Nogales is part of CBP’s Operation Plaza Spike, which targets Mexican cartels shipping fentanyl to the United States.
CBP identified the operation’s principal local target as Sergio Valenzuela Valenzuela, aka “Don Gio.” Federal officials last year said he is the plaza, or regional boss, and has been under federal indictment since 2018.
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