Husband, Wife Busted With $4.1 Million Worth Of Meth During Traffic Stop

LITTLEFIELD, Ariz. (CBS Local) -- A husband and wife were arrested last week in the largest single meth bust in the history of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, officials said.

Authorities say an AZDPS trooper stopped a vehicle Friday on Interstate 15 just south of Littlefield, which is located in far northwestern Arizona in Mohave County.

A search assisted by a drug-sniffing K-9 revealed 362 pounds of methamphetamine, which has an estimated street value of $4.1 million, CBS affiliate KPHO reported.

"Arizona is under attack every day from the cartels," DPS Director Col. Frank Milstead said at a news conference on Monday. "They [cartels] continue to try to push as much of their dope, their narcotics into Arizona as they can."

Milstead says the drugs were likely headed to Chicago by way of Arizona.

"It [meth] comes by way of air, it comes by underground tunnels, it comes in passenger cars -- any way you can think about smuggling their narcotics," he said.

Authorities say they arrested the driver, Maurius Montez Mason, 38, of Peoria, Illinois, and his wife, Julie Jeannie Mason, 52, of Burlington, Iowa, who was a passenger.

The couple was charged with possession and transportation of a dangerous drug. They were booked into the Mesquite Detention Center in Mesquite, Nevada.

Milstead said that earlier the same day, a trooper working in the Casa Grande area stopped a vehicle on Interstate 10. During a subsequent search, the trooper located 88 pounds of meth, which had an estimated street value of $998,000.