Jessica Suerth

The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly $1 million in smuggled drugs at the U.S-Mexico border crossing in Nogales last week, officials said Monday.

Border agents arrested five U.S. citizens and two Mexican nationals in separate attempts to smuggle drugs into the United States from Mexico. They involved 412 pounds of methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine that was worth more than $919,000, the agency said in a media release. The seizures occurred over three days last week. CBP provided these details:

On April 11, agents seized 35 pounds of meth, heroin and cocaine valued at more than $201,000. The agents found the drugs during an inspection of a truck driven by an unidentified 22-year-old Mexican man.

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Also on April 11, more than a pound of heroin was seized from a 17-year-old woman attempting to walk across the border from Nogales, Ariz. The drugs were hidden in her groin area. Another pound of heroin was found on a 25-year-old woman from Rio Rico who was trying to cross into the United States, and a 43-year-old woman from Tucson was found with more than a pound of heroin in her purse.

Agents also found nearly 23 pounds of heroin while searching an 18-year-old Mexican man's Saturn sedan. The heroin was valued to be worth more than $400,000.

On April 12, agents stopped a 23-year-old man from Rio Rico to search his Pontiac sedan, where they found 13 pounds of cocaine — worth about $148,000 — hidden beneath the car's backseats.

On April 13, more than 37 pounds of meth was seized from a 28-year-old Tucson woman who attempted to smuggle the drugs across the border in her car's spare tire, officials said.

Follow Jessica Suerth on Twitter: @ASUerth