Arizona man charged with felony for bringing 7 kg of fentanyl into the country with a pressure cooker
As drugs are rampant across the country, drug enforcement has become increasingly strict. Unexpectedly, an Arizona man whimsically carried a pressure cooker with about 7 kilograms of fentanyl pills inside and attempted to break through the customs. He was seized on the spot by customs and will face federal felony charges.
According to court documents obtained by USA Today, 27-year-old citizen Jose Armando Longoria was arrested for smuggling fentanyl and attempting to sell drugs when entering the country.
Court documents show that Longoria entered the country on foot from Nogales, Mexico on the 18th of this month. Unexpectedly, when he walked to the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry, he was suddenly stopped by customs officers.
It turned out that Longoria only brought a pressure cooker with him, which aroused doubts from the Federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. Longoria argued on the spot that the pressure cooker contained a pot of meat.
But the CBP officer did not believe it, so he lifted the pressure cooker and found that it was heavier than expected, so he asked Longoria to go to the secondary inspection area for a detailed inspection.
After entering the secondary inspection area, Longoria still insisted that there was no problem with the meat in the pot, until the drug detection dog appeared and immediately found drugs. Then the CBP officer opened the pot and seized 11 bags of blue pills with a total weight of 7.18 kilograms. After testing, they showed a positive reaction to fentanyl, and the man was caught red-handed.
According to the criminal indictment submitted by the prosecutor to the Arizona Federal District Court on the 20th of this month, Longoria waived his right to defense and admitted to federal investigators that an anonymous person offered him 100 yuan to bring the drugs hidden in the pressure cooker into the United States. Longoria also pointed out that someone had commissioned him to smuggle drugs on his behalf in the past, but he had not accepted it before.
Longoria is scheduled to appear in Tucson on July 7 for a detention hearing before U.S. District Judge Ruce G. Macdonald, where he faces charges of possessing more than 400 grams of fentanyl with intent to distribute the drug.
