PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. (FOX 10) -- Officials with the Pinal County Sheriff's Office say a K-9 deputy seized $48,000 worth of meth during a traffic stop along the I-10 on Thursday.

According to a statement released Friday, the traffic stop happened at around 3:30 p.m., when a deputy pulled over a car for a moving and equipment violation in the Casa Grande area. During the stop, the deputy noted some suspicious circumstances and deployed his K-9 to do an exterior sniff of the car. Eventually, the deputy uncovered 16 cellophane-wrapped bundles of meth. The meth bundles, hidden in multiple compartments, totalled 17.8lbs (~8.07kg).

PCSO officials say there were two Mexican nationals inside the car at the time of the incident. The driver is identified as 31-year-old Martha Rabago Ibarra, and the passenger is identified 43-year-old Maria Franco Alvarez. Both are Mexican nationals, and both have been charged with transportation of dangerous drugs for sale and possession of dangerous drugs for sale.

FOX 10 reported on this story from Phoenix.