LORDSTOWN — The village of Lordstown has something in common with Nogales, Arizona.

The city has six times the population of Lordstown, and borders Sonoro, Mexico, but both places are railroad hubs. And authorities in both have found Ford Fusions stuffed with marijuana instead of spare tires.

Dilworth, Minn., also belongs to the club.

And the more than 400 pounds of marijuana found in 15 cars July 14 before being sent to dealerships in Pennsylvania, as well as Portage, Stark and Columbiana counties, wasn’t the first time smuggled marijuana made an appearance at the CSX railyard in Lordstown.

Lordstown police detective Chris Bordonaro said in August 2015, more than 50 pounds of marijuana was found in a Ford that was tracked back to a manufacturing plant in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.

The marijuana found in Dilworth, Nogales and in the most recent incident in Lordstown all came from the same plant.

So what does Ford do to make sure its products aren’t being used as a cover for illegal drug operations? How does the company work with law enforcement after these incidents? How often does it happen? Is the company considering any procedural changes to stop this type of activity in the future?

Kelli Felker, manufacturing and labor communications manager for Ford, issued the following statement in response to these questions:

“We’re aware of the situation and are taking it very seriously. We are working with the FBI and Customs on an extensive investigation. We have confirmed that this is not happening at our plant or at our internal shipping yards.”

Bordonaro said he has never heard of marijuana being discovered on cars from other companies in the railyard.

The marijuana found in 2015 was strapped to the bottom of the Fusions with zip ties and tape, Bordonaro said, and they found remnants on 10 or 11 other cars on the train that had first stopped in Chicago and idled for 18 hours before arriving in Lordstown.

In the most recent incident, the $1 million worth of pot was was discovered in the spare tire wheel well by a service department employee at a Portage County auto dealership

In Dilworth, the drugs also were hidden in the spare tire wheel well of seven new cars in an auto yard — about 217 pounds with a value of $272,000, the department said.

Then, in May, marijuana again was found in a shipment of Ford Fusions traveling by rail from Mexico and headed toward Minnesota. Those drugs were intercepted in Nogales, Arizona, the Associated Press reported. A truck driver in a Minnesota rail yard discovered the pot in two vehicles, which prompted a search of the other 13 in Arizona.

The Associated Press also reported that at the Arizona-Sonora border in May 2015, the Mexican military found 430 pounds of marijuana in the spare-tire spaces of 14 new cars inside a rail car in Nogales.

In each of these instances, media reports indicated that spokespersons for Ford said the company was aware of the situation and was cooperating with the investigation. And each time, media reports also indicated that investigators had no suspects.

CSX did not respond to requests for comments.

The Portage County Sheriff’s Office is working with the Youngstown branch of the Drug Enforcement Agency investigating the July 14 incident.

Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office Major Tony Villanueva said the Trumbull Ashtabula Grop Law Enforcement Task Force is not leading the investigation. But the agency works regularly with the DEA and cannot comment on whether the task force will pay any extra attention to the railyard because “this may be an ongoing investigation.”

rfox@tribtoday.com