Multiple suspects have been arrested and 400 pounds of marijuana were seized in a west Phoenix raid early Wednesday. A Pinal County Sheriff’s Office investigation tracking drug and human smugglers’ armed scouts yielded the arrests of five suspects.

According to the PCSO, the bust is reportedly part of a months-long investigation that tracked “coyotes” (human smugglers) and “scouts” (armed escorts) moving drugs from mountainside areas in Pinal County to the west Phoenix location.

The investigation began in October 2017 and resulted in the arrests of four males and one female, according to local reports. Six children were living in the stash house where drugs and weapons were being kept when busted by the PCSO. Six vehicles were also seized.

Breitbart Texas has reported extensively on the use of heavily-armed scouts to protect human and drug cargo in the southern Arizona desert and mountainous regions. According to Tucson Sector Border Patrol Chief Rudolfo Kirsch, criminal organizations smuggling illicit commodities across the border utilize armed scouts to protect loads from both law enforcement and rival criminal gangs.

Law enforcement sources reported to Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity that rival smuggling gangs have violent confrontations in southern Arizona and are known to utilize hand-held radio communication systems and other similar measures to avoid capture.

This story is developing.

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.)