Drug busts on I-40

  • On June 16 the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office, working with Homeland Security Investigations, managed to seize over $1.3 million in illegal narcotics. Courtesy photo
    On June 16 the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office, working with Homeland Security Investigations, managed to seize over $1.3 million in illegal narcotics. Courtesy photo

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – The Cibola County Sheriff’s Office, working in conjunction with the Homeland Security Investigations Criminal Interdiction Task Force, managed to seize $1,874,895.40 worth of illegal narcotics over the past week. That is over $1.8 million dollars. The busts were made through two separate stops, one on June 16 and the other on June 20. Both incidents are under investigation.

June 16

HSI Criminal Interdiction Task Force officers initiated a traffic stop on Interstate 40 near mile post 120 for an unspecified moving violation. Inside the vehicle, HSI task force Officer Nick Jackson noticed the driver and passenger, Officer Jackson escorted the driver out of the vehicle to his cruiser and noticed suspicious activity that is often associated with drug smuggling operations, according to the CCSO.

Officer Jackson called for CCSO Deputy and HSI Criminal Interdiction Task Force member Deputy Julian Armijo, who handles K9 Rankin – a drug sniffing dog. Upon arrival of Deputy Armijo, K9 Rankin was led around the vehicle and gave a positive alert that drugs were inside.

The driver of the vehicle gave written consent for the inside of the vehicle to be searched, the officers uncovered 11.39 kilograms of methamphetamine, and 9.58 kilograms of an unspecefied drug.

The methamphetamine has a Drug Enforcement Administration street price of $1,264,290. The unspecefied drug has a DEA street price of $81,234.40.

The driver and passenger were both arrested and booked into the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico.

June 20

Deputy Armijo was driving along I-40 when he observed a speeding vehicle, the deputy turned on his lights to make a traffic stop and noticed one driver inside the vehicle. In this instance, Deputy Armijo identified similarities in this traffic stop to others that are consistent with drug trafficking.

Deputy Armijo escorted the driver to his cruiser and asked for consent to search the vehicle. The driver denied Deputy Armijo the right to search the vehicle after K9 Rankin gave an alert to drugs being in the vehicle. Because of the positive identification of drugs in the vehicle, Deputy Armijo had probable cause to execute a search and found a series of narcotics inside.

Deputy Armijo found six pounds of methamphetamine, two pounds of heroin, two pounds of cocaine, nine ounces of fentanyl and five firearms.

The driver was charged under federal law and booked into the CCCC.

Deputy Armijo is one of three agents in the CCSO that has federal commission to assist with federal cases, Sheriff Tony Mace explained that the qualifications his deputies bring not only helps to make Cibola County safer and gives CCSO more ability to get larger criminals off the street.