An American woman in her 70s was busted this week smuggling 17 pounds of heroin into the U.S. from Mexico, officials said.
The 75-year-old woman, who was not identified, was arrested just after 1 p.m. Tuesday after being selected for a secondary search in Tornillo, just outside of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez.
Agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection used an X-ray machine to find several bundles of the drug in the center console of the woman’s Ford Escape. Her purse was also full of bundles.
Combined, the seven plastic-wrapped packages weighed 16 3/4 pounds.
Donna Sifford, who heads up the border crossing, said it’s not the first time drug runners have used a senior to ferry their products across the border.
“And it won’t be the last,” she added. “Smugglers will try just about anything.”
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