Customs and Border Protection officers interrupted a cocaine smuggling network near El Paso.
“Our homeland security mission is never ending and every drug load that we prevent from reaching its intended destination makes a difference,” said Roy Provencio, port director for CBP El Paso, in a press release.
CBP officers at the Bridge of the Americas seized 45.2 pounds of cocaine – enough to overdose more than 17,000 people – on May 27, according to the release. The drugs were hidden in a car driven by an American citizen.
A 20-year-old woman arrived from Mexico at the border crossing in a 2016 Hyundai Elantra at 8 a.m., according to the release. A CBP officer sent the vehicle for a “secondary exam.”
“A CBP drug-sniffing dog searched the car and alerted officers to the presence of narcotics,” the release reads.
Officers found “several wrapped bundles” in the car’s “rocker panels” – below the vehicle doors and between the wheels – according to the release. An X-ray confirmed “anomalies in the left and right rocker panels.”
Ultimately, CBP officers removed 19 bundles of cocaine from the hidden compartments. They arrested the woman, who they turned over to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to face charges.
“Every day our dedicated CBP workforce stands guard protecting our community from any and all threats,” Provencio said in the release.
Officials are pursuing charges for “manufacturing/delivery of controlled substance,” CBP Public Affairs Specialist Roger Maier told The Dallas Express. Maier declined to provide the woman’s identity and referred further questions to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
The Dallas Express contacted the sheriff’s office, but a staff member at the jail declined to comment.