Two people are in custody after a hunch and a sniffer dog at Nogales lead officers to 1,500 hidden pounds of the drug.

GABRIELA RICO

A bus purported to be bound for California filled with imposter tourists and $1.5 million worth of marijuana was stopped at a Nogales port of entry last weekend.
The "tour" from Mexico was a ruse to get 1,534 pounds of the drug into the United States, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

"I've never seen anything involving so many paid people as window dressing," said Matthew C. Allen, resident agent in charge of the ICE office in Nogales. "It doesn't seem like there were any unwitting passengers."

Driver Eduardo Cortes Amezcua of Mexico City, 55, and the "tour guide," Laura Encarnacion Valencia Guerrero, 41 of Mazatlan, were arrested and charged with importation of a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. They are in federal custody.

The 23 "tourists" were returned to Mexico, said Roger Maier, Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

A total of 121 marijuana bundles with a street value of $1.5 million were found in bus compartments, he said.

Stepped-up enforcement is forcing smugglers to conjure up new tricks to move their drugs, Allen said.

"These groups are going to new levels of sophistication every day," Allen said. "It's very much the proverbial cat-and-mouse game."

He did not know how much the passengers were paid.

The bus, marked "Executive Tourists," arrived at the Mariposa port of entry Saturday afternoon, Maier said.

Customs and Border Protection officers from the Anti-Terrorism/Contraband Enforcement Team "identified several anomalies" in the appearance of the bus. They said Columbo, a drug-sniffing dog, alerted them to the marijuana.