Each person was charged with drug-related charges specifically relating to the sale of narcotics, the transportation of narcotics, and the distribution of narcotics as well as for their participation in a criminal syndicate, all felony offenses.
The Counter Narcotics Alliance group arrested 15 people for various narcotics-related charges and recovered nine and a half pounds of heroin worth about $8 million dollars.
The Counter Narcotics Alliance is an investigative group made up of officers from the Tucson Police Department, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Marana Police Department, the Oro Valley Police Department, the University of Arizona Police Department, the Sahuarita Police Department and Border Patrol.
This investigation started on June 1, 2011and ended February 16, 2012.
During the course of the seven and a half months, Counter Narcotics Alliance investigative personnel and undercover operatives identified not only high-volume suppliers of heroin in the Tucson area, but also a primary source of the heroin entering the United States from Mexico, said Maria Hawke Public Information Officer for TPD.
The nine and a half pounds of heroin were distributed mostly throughout the Tucson area.
On February 15th and 16th, the investigation team were able to get seven search warrants throughout different locations in Tucson and were able to arrest the 15 people involved.
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