The U.S. Border Patrol recovered a body of a suspected illegal immigrant Sunday near Sonoita and arrested a man carrying a substantial amount of heroin in downtown Nogales Monday.
On Saturday, agents on horseback apprehended a group of 78 illegal immigrants near Douglas in the Perilla Mountains.
The body recovery began on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. when the Border Patrol received a phone call from a resident near Sonoita about a body near Singing Valley Ranch Road, west of Arizona 83 and north of Sonoita, said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
Agents went to the area and found a dead man who appeared to be in his mid-30s. Pima County Sheriff's Department officials arrived and determined he had died from natural causes, Daniels said.
The man is believed to have been from Mexico, but a positive identification is pending, said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner. The cause of death appears to be hypothermia, he said.
The Border Patrol hasn't yet released its final fiscal 2008 numbers of border deaths, but through the first 11 months the number of bodies found had dropped from the previous two years to 154, compared with 204 in 2007 and 169 in 2006, agency figures show.
The number of bodies of illegal immigrants handled by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner has also decreased this year from the past two years. From Jan. 1 through Oct. 14, the office has handled 138 bodies, down from 192 at the same time in 2007 and 156 in 2006, said Parks.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/262455
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