Border Patrol seizes fentanyl and heroin worth $1.7 million

Reporting from San Diego —  Border Patrol agents seized more than $1 million worth of fentanyl and $560,000 worth of heroin in cars stopped north of San Diego County on Wednesday.

Both drivers were arrested in separate busts in San Clemente and Murrieta, federal officials said.

Agents stopped a Volkswagen Vento about 2 p.m. Wednesday on Interstate 15 near Clinton Keith Road in Murrieta. After a drug-sniffing dog reacted to the car, agents found 10 plastic-wrapped bundles of fentanyl in a cardboard box in the trunk, authorities said.

The drugs weighed more than 34 pounds, with an estimated street value of $1.17 million. The driver, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested on suspicion of narcotics smuggling.

The other arrest took place about an hour earlier, when agents stopped a Nissan Versa near the San Clemente checkpoint on Interstate 5. A Border Patrol dog again reacted to the sedan trunk.

Agents pulled out two duffel bags containing a total of 14 heroin packages weighing about 40 pounds. They would be worth about $564,000 on the street, federal authorities said. The Versa driver, described only as a 46-year-old man, was arrested and turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com

Repard writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune

ALSO

Suspected Mexican Mafia ‘soldiers’ charged in series of violent attacks at L.A. County jail

47 arrested, 77 weapons seized in largest gang takedown in San Jacinto Valley

Border wall prototypes could start going up in San Diego this summer, U.S. official says