Officers say mother, daughter had cocaine load

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
El Paso Times

Article Launched:01/27/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

An El Paso mother-and-daughter pair traveling together were found to be smuggling 72.1 pounds of cocaine in their van Jan. 20, officials with Customs and Border Protection said.

Martha Vasquez de Barron, 44, drove a 1998 Ford van to the Paso del Norte Bridge last Saturday with her daughter, Ana Avalos, 26, as passenger. Officers were suspicious of the duo when they gave contradictory answers to routine questions, officials said.

After a search, officers discovered the 33 cocaine-filled bundles in a hidden compartment in the dashboard of the van. The women were arrested.

Family smuggling is "something we don't see often but more often than we used to," said CBP spokesman Roger Maier. "It used to be that a typical smuggler was a young single male driver, but now we get juveniles, family units and elderly smugglers."