Woman arrested for smuggling meth

A 27-year-old Mexicali woman was arrested Monday morning at the East port of entry for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 45 pounds of methamphetamine inside her vehicle.

Nancy Isela Velarde-Reyes was taken into custody about 10 a.m. at the port of entry by Homeland Security Investigations agents and booked into county jail without bail on suspicion of unlawful importation of a controlled substance, county Sheriff’s Office arrest records stated.

According to a federal court complaint, Velarde and her vehicle, a 2014 Honda City, were referred to secondary inspection for a random X-ray inspection when Velarde applied for entry at the port of entry Monday morning.

The vehicle was also occupied by Velarde’s 7-year-old son, who was seated in the back seat.

During secondary inspection, Customs and Border Protection officers conducted an X-ray scan of the vehicle, and noticed anomalies in the vehicle’s gas tank.

A narcotics-detecting canine was requested and alerted positively to the vehicle.

Upon inspection, officers used a fiber optic scope and saw plastic inside of the gas tank.

The fuel sending unit was removed, and several vacuum-sealed packaged were recovered from the fuel tank.

A private contractor was contacted and removed the fuel tank.

Officers located and recovered 36 packages from the fuel tank, two packages from the driver’s side seat frame and two additional packages from the passenger side frame.

The packages, which were wrapped in cellophane and double wrapped in vacuumed-sealed bags, field-tested positive for meth.

The combined total weight of the 40 packages was 45.32 pounds.

In the court complaint, Velarde said she met an individual on Facebook who offered to pay her $3,000 to transport two packages from Mexico into the United States.