U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the southern Texas border seized more than $18.6 million in suspected methamphetamine during an inspection at the Laredo Port of Entry on November 1.
“This extraordinary drug bust was an outstanding operation that demonstrates CBP’s commitment to combating the crimes of transnational criminal organizations,” Laredo Port Director Albert Flores said.
The discovery was made when a CBP field officer assigned to the World Trade Bridge that Tuesday referred a 2010 International Prostar tractor-trailer carrying paint buckets for secondary inspection, according to an agency press release.
Following a canine inspection and a non-intrusive inspection — conducted using X-ray or gamma-ray imaging equipment — of the truck, 2,033 pounds of meth were apparently uncovered and seized.
The drugs had a total street value of $18,694,838, according to CBP.
In the press release announcing this drug bust, Flores emphasized that officers at the entry point have “heightened their enforcement strategy” to disrupt the flow of deadly, high-risk narcotics into the United States.
On Monday morning, Randy Howe, Laredo’s office director, gave a seven-day recap of seizures by CBP officers at that location in a tweet.
Figured in the reported tally were many illicit substances, including 2,688 pounds of methamphetamine, 299 pounds of cocaine, 15 pounds of fentanyl, and 11 pounds of heroin.
These narcotics had a combined street value of over $28.5 million.
Howe added that the Trade and Travel Facilitation in Laredo processed 81,367 commercial cargo vehicles, 405,782 regular vehicles, and 16,553 rail cars.
“Extremely proud of [CBP],” he tweeted.
Aside from drug seizures, CBP also notably arrested 98 unlawful migrants on the FBI’s terror watchlist at the southern border in the fiscal year 2022, according to The Dallas Express.
The 98 apprehensions represent a one-year high and a significant increase from the zero apprehended in 2019. According to CBP statistics, Border Patrol agents encountered three people on the terror watchlist at the southern border in the fiscal year 2020 and 15 in the fiscal year 2021.
These kinds of arrests have also increased dramatically in the last six months. Only 27 people on the terror watchlist had been arrested along the southern border as of March, the midpoint of the fiscal year 2022, yet 20 unlawful migrants on the terror watchlist were apprehended in September alone.
