Tag: Counternarcotics

April 16, 2020

In a seven-hour period, Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol agents in Texas interrupted four smuggling attempts and seized over 1,100 pounds of marijuana worth approximately $1 million.

Former Border Patrol chief Victor Manjarrez says that the international travel restrictions have resulted in large drug seizures at the ports of entry due to CBP’s ability to perform more comprehensive inspections. Now the associate director at the Center for Law and Human Behavior at the University of Texas, Manjarrez notes that smugglers are reverting to more dangerous methods like sending drug mules across the desert or the Rio Grande.

A CBP officer sends a suspicious vehicle for a secondary inspection at the Gateway to the Americas Bridge in Laredo, Texas. A non-intrusive device inspection confirmed the presence of drugs including 115.39 pounds of meth and 2.43 pounds of heroin worth a combined value of $2.4 million.