As state and federal authorities tighten security around historically busy smuggling routes along the Southern Border with Mexico (like in South Texas) there’s evidence the cartels may be shifting smuggling traffic elsewhere. One border state that is seeing an increase in cartel smuggling is Arizona.
The Phoenix Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports seizing almost 73% more cocaine in 2025 in Arizona than it did last year.
Recent cocaine seizures in Arizona include more than 21 pounds of the drug in Nogales (a busy cartel smuggling spot, as you’ll see in this article) by US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Agents on November 23, 2025.
Meth smuggling is also booming in Arizona. The DEA reports seizing more than a ton of the drug in Arizona last month, bringing the amount of meth seized there in 2025 to almost 12,000 pounds.
Notable recent busts include 819 pounds of meth hidden in a commercial cargo shipment seized in Nogales on November 29, 2025.
Five days earlier, CBP “rail officers” discovered more than 122 pounds of meth hidden aboard a train entering Arizona from Mexico.
That same Nogales CBP “Rail Team” hit the jackpot on September 15, 2025. They found a cartel drug load consisting of more than 327 pounds of meth, 24 pounds of cocaine, and 14 pounds of black tar heroin.
So much meth is flowing through this area that smugglers sometimes just toss it into the brush along the Arizona border for another cartel member to pick up. The 160-pound load of meth in the photo below, consisting of 75 bricks of meth, was found by Border Patrol Agents along a known foot-smuggling route near the Border Wall east of Nogales on November 7, 2025.
On September 8, 2025, Border Patrol Tucson Sector Intelligence Unit (SIU) Agents discovered and seized a camouflaged backpack filled with more than $200,000 worth of meth, hidden along a known foot-smuggling route near the town of Ruby, Arizona.
Cartel Human Smugglers are also keeping Border Patrol Agents busy in the Tucson Sector. On November 9, 2025, and November 14, 2025, human smugglers led the Border Patrol on high-speed chases that led to the drivers wrecking out. Because no one was seriously injured, both rollover accidents were followed by brief foot pursuits after the smugglers and their human “cargo” escaped their overturned vehicles and tried to flee on foot. 13 people were arrested as a result.
Should more be done to shut down cartel smuggling routes through Arizona?
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Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
