Drug bundle falls through Arizona family's home

NOGALES, Ariz. -- (KOLD/AP) -- Maya Donnelly awoke to what sounded like thunder in the early morning hours, but dismissed it as a typical monsoon storm and went back to sleep.

Later that morning, she looked in the carport at her home in Nogales, near the U.S.-Mexico border, and saw pieces of wood on the ground. She found a bulky bundle wrapped in black plastic.

Inside was roughly 26 pounds of marijuana - a package that authorities say was worth $10,000 and likely was dropped there accidentally by a drug smuggler's aircraft.

"It's all right on top of our dog's house," Donnelly said of the Sept. 8 incident, which was first reported by the Nogales International newspaper. "It just made a perfectly round hole through our carport."

Living near the border, Donnelly said she assumed the object was drugs. She immediately called her husband, Bill, who told her to call 911.

The couple said officers who responded told them an ultralight aircraft smuggling marijuana from Mexico had probably let part of its load go early by accident before dropping the rest farther north, the newspaper reported.

Nogales Police Chief Derek Arnson said it's the first time in his three-year tenure that he's ever seen a load of drugs hit a building.

"Someone definitely made a mistake, and who knows what the outcome of that mistake might be for them," Arnson said.

Police are trying to determine whether the bundle was transported by an aircraft or a pilotless drone. Such runs usually occur at night.