A city councilwoman from the Mexican city of Reynosa was arrested at a Border Patrol checkpoint after agents detected 93 pounds of cocaine in her vehicle.
The councilwoman, Denisse Ahumada, is one of 20 members of the Reynosa City Council. She was arrested after an X-ray scan of her vehicle at an inland Border Patrol checkpoint near Falfurrias.
After flagging anomalies in her vehicle’s seats and door panels, Border Patrol found 42 cocaine-filled aluminum foil packages held together by duct tape. Each package contained around a kilogram of cocaine.
Ahumada told law enforcement that the narcotics shipment was scheduled to be delivered to San Antonio and that she had delivered drugs to the city before.
Ahumada has been charged with intent to distribute drugs and is being prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for southern Texas.
Ahumada is reportedly part of the Mexican conservative minority party National Action Party, known as PAN. PAN denied her involvement in the party. They claim that Ahumada was elected as part of the Mexican Green Party but later requested to join PAN. The party claims they lost contact with her after she joined.
Reynosa is located in the Mexican State of Tamaulipas, a region of Mexico that has been infiltrated and dominated by the Gulf Cartel for nearly a century.
The Gulf Cartel issued an apology to the United States after two U.S. citizens were killed in an incident in Matamoros. The cartel claimed the murders were accidental and apologized by turning over their own men, who they claimed were involved in the incident.
Drug cartels have penetrated the highest as well as the lowest levels of Mexican government. The head of Mexico’s public security, a presidential cabinet member, was convicted of drug trafficking in February. From 2006-2012, he was tasked with combating the cartels he secretly worked with and profited from.
