Texas Border: Big Busts Hit Cartels Hard
October was a bad month for cartel smugglers, thanks to U.S. Federal Agents.
October is shaping up to be a really bad month for cartel drug smugglers all along the Texas border with Mexico. Federal Agents have reported large drug busts at many of the International Bridges along the Rio Grande this month totaling around $10 million dollars.
The largest reported bust was announced by US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) on October 16, 2024. CBP agents in Pharr, Texas seized 300 pounds of cocaine worth more than $4,000,000.
Another multi-million dollar bust occurred on October 18, 2024, on the Veteran's International Bridge in Brownsville where CBP Officers discovered more than 335 pounds of methamphetamine worth more than $3,000,000 inside a vehicle crossing into Texas from Matamoros, Mexico.
CBP Agents discovered 13 packages of drugs hidden throughout an SUV driven by a 78-year-old Mexican citizen crossing the Camino Real International Bridge into Eagle Pass from Piedras Negras on October 26, 2024. The packages contained 24.60 pounds of cocaine and 4.72 pounds of fentanyl worth a combined street value of $438,715.
On the same International Bridge just a day earlier, CBP Officers discovered 22 pounds of methamphetamine within the liner of a cooler inside a pick-up truck. The narcotics had an estimated street value of $205,152.64.
The day before that, CBP Officers checking southbound traffic crossing the Pharr International Bridge into Reynosa, Mexico found five bundles hidden within another pick-up truck resulting in the seizure of a total of $65,948 in unreported currency. The money is believed to be smuggling profits being returned to one of the Mexican cartels.
On October 20, 2024, a CBP K9 alerted its handler to something suspicious about an SUV crossing into Presidio, Texas from Ojinaga, Mexico. When officers took a closer look they discovered bundles hidden throughout the frame of the vehicle.
Seven bundles containing 20.6 pounds of cocaine worth more than $500,000 were seized by the federal officers on the Presidio-Ojinaga International Bridge (also known by some locals as Puente Ojinaga).
A day earlier, CBP Agents on the Camino Real International Bridge found nearly 16 pounds of heroin worth $267,414 inside a van crossing into Eagle Pass, Texas from Mexico.
On October 18, 2024, the Border Patrol announced that a K9 and its Agent handler discovered more than 10 kilos of cocaine inside a vehicle driving through their Sierra Blanca, Texas checkpoint on Interstate 10. That's a drug load worth about a quarter million dollars.
On October 16, 2024, the Border Patrol announced that its Rio Grande City agents intercepted a 341-pound load of marijuana worth $273,000.
As proof that smugglers will use every nook and cranny inside an SUV they can - CBP Agents found 45 pounds of meth hidden within its rocker panels as it crossed the Eagle Pass International Bridge into Texas on October 12, 2024. The drug load is valued at $414,765.
Here's more evidence that smugglers will use anything to try to bring drugs into the country: When CBP Agents' suspicions were aroused in early October by oversized cushions on an arriving passenger's motorized wheelchair they had a K9 give it a sniff and confirmed something was amiss.
X-rays revealed 11 packages hidden with the cushions which were found to contain more than 12 kilos of cocaine worth more than a quarter million dollars.
The date and exact location of our final October seizure have not been revealed by Federal Authorities likely due to an ongoing investigation, but the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector announced on October 26, 2024, that one of its K9 teams was recently requested to inspect a "suspicious package."
The K9 and its agent handler discovered the "wireless speaker" within the box contained three pounds of cocaine worth $96,000.
Do you believe enough is being done to combat cartel smugglers along the Texas - Mexico Border?
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