***Article first published by 'CBS AZ Family' on Jan. 25, 2019***

PINAL COUNTY, AZ (3TV/CBS5) -- Two women have been arrested after a traffic stop near Casa Grande ended in a major meth bust.

Deputies seized $48,000 worth of methamphetamine during the stop on Thursday.

According to the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, the driver, 31-year-old Martha Rabago Ibarra, and passenger, 43-year-old Maria Franco Alvarez, were charged with transportation of dangerous drugs for sale and possession of dangerous drugs for sale.

Officials say both women are Mexican nationals.

According to PSCO, a deputy doing traffic enforcement along Interstate 10 stopped the vehicle for a moving and equipment violation.

As the deputy came up to the car, he noticed "several suspicious circumstances" and had his K9 partner do an exterior sniff of the vehicle.

The deputy was then able to uncover 18 pounds of meth tucked away in hidden compartments of the vehicle.

The meth totaled nearly 18 pounds.

“Without the hard work of our K9 deputy, those bundles of methamphetamine would have disappeared into communities across Arizona and our nation,” said Sheriff Mark Lamb. “As I have said before, these drugs wouldn’t be coming into our country if there wasn’t a demand. This is just another example of how the cartel is taking advantage of the opioid epidemic.”