A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter crew rescued five people in two incidents over the weekend from rugged terrain in the Peloncillo Mountains near the Arizona-Mexico border, officials said.

On Friday afternoon, mounted agents at Douglas Station requested assistance from the Tucson Air Branch, a division of CBP Air and Marine Operations, after spotting a group of migrants suffering from heat exhaustion, said Rob Daniels, a CBP spokesman.

A Blackhawk helicopter flew to the scene and was accompanied by three members of the Tucson Sector Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue Unit (BORSTAR), including a paramedic, he said.

One of the migrants was “unresponsive and having a seizure,” Daniels said. Two rescue specialists from the Blackhawk crew were lowered into the area via cable and cleared a landing zone. The helicopter landed and a migrant was loaded onto the aircraft and flown to a waiting rescue helicopter, Daniels said.

A second person suffered from heat exhaustion and was taken by helicopter to a Douglas Fire Department team, Daniels said. A third migrant could not walk and the team decided to hoist him into the helicopter with an AMO rescue specialist and fly him to the Douglas Fire Department team, who later took him to a hospital in Sierra Vista.

On Sunday evening, a Tucson Air Branch helicopter was again dispatched to the Peloncillo Mountains. After the crew found a landing zone in the rugged and steep terrain, they, along with a member of the Douglas Horse Patrol unit, loaded a migrant into the helicopter and flew to a nearby ambulance. The helicopter returned to the site, picked up another person and flew to a nearby ambulance.

One of the mounted patrol officers later flew back to his team and led the remaining seven migrants on foot out of the remote area, where they were to await transport to the BP gas station for processing, Daniels said.

“Our aircrews are trained and able to quickly transition from operational missions to humanitarian missions,” said Jessie Scruggs, AMO Air Force Base manager in Tucson. “These two incidents are an example of how our aircrews are assisting ground agents who encounter the growing number of migrants in distress due to the unforgiving conditions they face at the hands of callous smugglers.”

Smuggling organizations “continue to recklessly endanger the lives of people they smuggle through difficult terrain and hot temperatures for their own financial gain,” Daniels said, adding that the organizations “are abandoning migrants in remote and dangerous areas, leading to an increase in the number of rescues conducted by CBP.”

“CBP's message to anyone considering entering the United States illegally through the southern border is simple: Don't do it,” Daniels wrote. “When migrants cross the border illegally, they put their lives in danger.”

With approximately 1,800 employees, AMO manages approximately 240 aircraft and 300 seagoing vessels operating along the U.S. borders as well as in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Last fiscal year, AMO made 1,004 arrests and was credited with the apprehension of nearly 90,000 people. The agency was also credited with the seizure or “interception” of 256,883 pounds of cocaine, 2,049 pounds of fentanyl, 4,050 pounds of methamphetamine, 2,200 weapons and $15.3 million in cash.

In May, CBP officials said AMO crews in the Tucson sector rescued 98 people from October 2023 to April 25.