(The Center Square) – Federal officials announced Wednesday they busted a group using trucks to bring fire extinguishers filled with illicit fentanyl and other illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border.
An arraignment was scheduled Wednesday afternoon for the final defendant arrested on a federal grand jury indictment that alleges a scheme to smuggle fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin from Mexico into the United States. The indictment alleges the drugs were packed into fire extinguishers and concealed in loads of scrap metal.
During the two-year investigation, called Operation “Smoke Jumpers,” authorities seized about 680,992 fentanyl pills, 3 kilograms of fentanyl powder, 17 kilograms of heroin, and 10,418 pills containing methamphetamine.
Nine people were arrested in a sweep that started on Feb. 8 and continued through Monday. One person was already in state custody. Seven additional defendants are fugitives believed to be in Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“These defendants used a sophisticated network
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