PHOENIX, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. officials said Monday they had broken up a significant Mexican drug smuggling operation in the Arizona desert.
Operation Pipeline Express lasted 17 months and "dealt a significant blow" to a smuggling ring that moved an estimated $33 million worth of various drugs through the western Arizona desert every month, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said.
Horne, along with federal and Pinal County law enforcement officials, told reporters in Phoenix the alleged smugglers used vehicles and hikers with backpacks to haul marijuana, cocaine and heroin across the desert from Mexico to stash houses in Phoenix. The drugs, estimated at 330 tons per year, were then shipped out to distributors across the United States.
"I find it completely unacceptable that Arizona neighborhoods are treated as a trading floor for narcotics," Horne said.
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The operation resulted in three major sweeps in the Phoenix area by state, local and federal officers that have resulted in 76 arrests. The latest occurred last week with the arrests of 22 suspects and the seizure of two tons of marijuana.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department said in a written statement intelligence gathered during Operation Pipeline Express indicated the alleged smuggling ring was controlled by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. The cartel appeared to have a virtual monopoly on trafficking along the Arizona border and had been in operation at least five years.
"During that timeframe, authorities conservatively estimate the ring has smuggled more than 3.3 million pounds of marijuana, 20,000 pounds of cocaine and 10,000 pounds of heroin into to the United States, generating almost $2 billion in illicit proceeds," the statement said.
