Staff Reports
FORT GRANT – A brazen attempt to smuggle a cache of drugs and contraband into the Arizona State Department of Corrections’ Fort Grant Unit ended in a fruitless seven-hour manhunt through rugged desert terrain on Friday morning, authorities confirmed.
The incident unfolded around 6:08 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 17, when a Department of Corrections (DOC) employee reported a suspicious individual spotted near the prison perimeter on South Fort Grant Road in rural Cochise County. Initially mistaken for a possible escaped inmate, the figure — a male clad in a dark blue hoodie and ski mask, clutching what appeared to be a grocery bag — fled eastward on foot into the arid landscape east of the facility.
Responders mobilized swiftly, including Graham County Sheriff’s deputies, Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers, a DPS Ranger helicopter, and DOC K-9 tracking teams. DOC guards had initiated an external search while an emergency inmate count was underway. The count, which began at 6:32 a.m., ultimately confirmed all prisoners accounted for, shifting focus to an external smuggling operation.
As search teams fanned out, the suspect abandoned a large box just beyond a barbed-wire fence on the prison’s north side. DOC investigators later cataloged its contents, including approximately one pound of crystal methamphetamine, three pounds of tobacco, a substantial quantity of heroin, 150 counterfeit oxycodone fentanyl pills, six syringes, and five cell phones.
K-9 handlers and Sheriff’s deputies traced the suspect’s shoe prints northeast toward Mount Graham for several hundred yards before the trail veered southeast. Harsh terrain with rocky soil, scattered grasses, and washes thwarted further progress. A secondary team picked up prints near a bridge north of Highway 266, but the lead went cold. Overhead, the DPS Ranger helicopter scanned the area without spotting the fugitive. The search was suspended by 1 p.m., roughly seven hours after the alert.
Complicating the probe was a silver 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee observed speeding away from the scene during the initial pursuit. A DPS trooper later identified the vehicle pulling off a roadside near Apple Annie’s popular local landmark restaurant. The trooper tailed it eastward along Highway 266 to The Thing — a roadside attraction on Interstate 10 — before deeming grounds for a stop insufficient. The vehicle’s license plate traced back to a registered owner, a current inmate at Fort Grant Unit.
The driver, described as a female, was the vehicle’s sole occupant. No arrests were made, however the trooper relayed the plate details to investigators.
The case remains under investigation.
