In addition to the drugs, officers discovered a loaded handgun and a large amount of money, Aguilar said. It was not immediately clear how much money was found.
Renteria was charged with possession of narcotics and was being held in lieu of more than US$1 million (NZ$1.37 million) in bond, Aguilar said.
With Americans spending an estimated $100 billion (NZ$137 billion) a year on illegal drugs, traffickers' attempts to smuggle have seemingly become more inventive. Border agents in June found $5 million ($NZ6.85 million) worth of meth concealed in two trucks at the Texas border. One carried jalapeños, the other transported cucumbers, according to US Customs and Border Protection officials. In July, Texas border agents seized more than $900,000 (NZ$1.24 million) worth of marijuana and cocaine from a commercial trailer shipping tomatoes.
Other imaginative means of transporting drugs have involved catapults launching hundred-pound packages of marijuana over the border and doughnuts sprinkled with cocaine.
Few traffickers have disguised their narcotics as burritos – although an Arizona woman in 2016 smuggled a pound of meth worth more than $3000 (NZ$4115) inside actual burritos, according to US Customs and Border Protection officials.
And on Saturday, border agents arrested another Arizona woman crossing an immigration checkpoint with 10 ounces of heroin inside a blown-up condom, which was about the size of a burrito. Border agents estimate the drugs were worth about $7800 (NZ$10,700).
Should traffickers continue to model their smuggling techniques on burritos, Aguilar said, they might "hit at the heart of foodies everywhere."
"There's a great amount of attention when you try and make burritos the bad guy," she said.
