Federal customs officers at a border crossing in South Texas uncovered more than $72 million worth of methamphetamine that drivers attempted to smuggle into the United States from Mexico last weekend.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced late Sunday that Operations of Field Operations officers assigned to bridges where cars and commercial trucks are inspected before entering Laredo, Texas, and Pharr, Texas, from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, made two large seizures from drug smugglers on June 19.
Officers seized 7,047 pounds of methamphetamine, worth $63 million, from a 2011 Dodge Ram that attempted to pass through the World Trade Bridge into Laredo. The vehicle’s driver claimed to have a shipment of polypropylene in the truck’s stake bed.
Following a canine walk-around of the vehicle and sending the truck through a massive drive-through X-Ray machine, customs officers determined the driver’s claim was inaccurate and discovered the drugs hidden inside.
That same Friday, officers at the nearby Pharr International Bridge in the Rio Grande Valley found 193 packages of methamphetamine hidden inside a tractor-trailer. The drugs weighed more than 1,000 pounds and would be worth more than $9.3 million on the street.
The seizures are significant in size. Noteworthy methamphetamine seizures at ports of entry along the southern border are considered to be more than $1 million worth of drugs, making the first seizure a major feat.
“These large-scale cargo methamphetamine seizures, both taken the same day at different ports of entry within the Laredo Field Office, underscore the serious drug threat our officers are facing as well as their resolve to stem the flow of this poison into the U.S.,” CBP Director of Field Operations for the Laredo Field Office Donald R. Kusser said in a statement. “Our frontline officers remain committed to carrying out our border security mission, as exemplified by these significant enforcement actions.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations arm is handling criminal investigations into both seizures, and charges are expected to be brought against both drivers.