Feds: Smuggler Collared In Crackdown

APRIL 3--Call it a law enforcement crackdown.

A drug detection dog alerted to the “odor of narcotics emitting” from the buttocks of a Texas man trying to cross back into the U.S. from Mexico around 4 AM Monday, according to court records.

Investigators say George Vargas, a 26-year-old American, was questioned by Border Patrol agents after passing into the U.S. via a pedestrian lane at an El Paso port of entry. Vargas claimed to be returning from his grandmother’s house in Mexico and was en route to work.

When agents discovered that Vargas had, two hours earlier, entered the U.S. through a different El Paso port of entry, he was subjected to a secondary screening, which included a pat down for weapons.

Vargas “was clenching his thighs” during the “inconclusive” frisk, according to a criminal complaint. At that point, a “Concealed Human Narcotics Detector Dog (CHNDD)” was called in for a sniff. The animal reportedly “alerted to the trained odor of narcotics emitting from Vargas’ buttocks through his pants.”

After Vargas (pictured at right) was instructed to sit down, agents “noticed a bulge protruding from Vargas’ buttocks through his pants.” Vargas subsequently removed “two black taped bundles from in between his buttocks.” The packages, seen above, contained a combined total of 5.25 ounces of methamphetamine, the complaint states.

Upon being read his rights, Vargas reportedly agreed to speak with agents. He claimed to have been “threatened” and said he was going to be paid with two ounces of meth, while the remaining three ounces “would be picked up by an unknown individual. Vargas informed agents he needed the money.”

The complaint does not further detail the purported threats to Vargas, who lives in El Paso.

Charged with drug smuggling, Vargas faces more than 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony count. Now locked up in a county jail, Vargas is scheduled tomorrow for a U.S. District Court detention hearing at which prosecutors will argue that he “presents a high risk of fleeing the jurisdiction”--perhaps to Mexico--if released on bond.

Vargas’s rap sheet includes prior arrests for possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and marijuana possession. At the time of the meth smuggling bust, Vargas was free on a $20,000 bond in connection with his March 19 arrest on a felony theft count. (2 pages)