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Border Patrol agents seized more than 11,000 pounds of marijuana in the last 48 hours in the Tucson Sector, including three large seizures that totaled more than 5,000 pounds.

On Tuesday, agents patrolling near the village of San Miguel on the Tohono O'odham Nation discovered two sets of vehicle tracks heading north, said a press release from the agency.

One set led to an abandoned Dodge pickup with 56 bundles of marijuana and the other to an abandoned Chevrolet pickup with 57 bundles. The 113 bundles weighed a total of 2,446 pounds, the release said.

The trucks were reported stolen and turned over to the Tohono O'odham Police Department.

That same day on Arizona 83 near Sonoita, an agent noticed a utility truck that had unsecured side compartments.

When the agent approached the vehicle, he smelled marijuana and saw bundles shoved inside the cargo compartments.

They found 54 bundles of marijuana weighing 1,056 pounds inside. The driver, a 39-year-old illegal entrant from Mexico, was arrested.

The truck, which was registered to a Sonoita address, was turned over to the Border Patrol. Agents turned the marijuana over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The third large seizure occurred close to midnight Tuesday when an agent spotted a GMC pickup loaded with marijuana bundles on Trading Post Road northwest of Casa Grande. When the driver spotted the agent, he fled. He eventually abandoned the truck and ran away.

Agents found nearly 1,954 pounds of marijuana inside the truck. The truck, which was reported stolen out of Glendale, was turned over to Tohono O'odham police.

The 5,456 pounds of marijuana seized in the three large seizures has an estimated value of $3.317 million, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center.  

The large haul of drugs is the latest example that Arizona's stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border has become grand central station for dope smugglers.

In October and November, the first two months of fiscal year 2008, agents in the Tucson Sector have seized 156,300 pounds of marijuana, a 33 percent increase compared to the 117,340 pounds seized at the same time last fiscal year.

That puts the agency on pace for a seventh consecutive record-breaking year of drug seizures.

In 2007, agents seized 897,000 pounds — 48 percent of all marijuana seized by the agency on the U.S.-Mexican border — in 3,340 cases in the Tucson Sector, which stretches from the New Mexico line to the Yuma County line.