Mexican Cartels have lost more than a million dollars worth of cash profits from their smuggling operations in the space of a few days to federal and local law enforcement officers in South Texas.
The largest of those seizures came through joint work by Kingsville Border Patrol Agents and the Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office and was made public on May 16, 2025.
Two people were stopped in a pick-up truck in which Border Patrol agents found eighteen large bundles of cash in a hidden compartment. The money added up to $835,000. Needless to say, the pair in the truck now faces serious money laundering charges.
The second largest bust occurred on May 15, 2025, when an agent from the Kleberg County Attorney's Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force stopped a southbound car on US Highway 77.
After the agent noticed a non-factory-installed compartment, a K9 alerted to something suspicious inside. When they opened that compartment, they found it stuffed with twenty-seven bundles of cash. This haul added up to $360,565.00. The New Braunfels Police Department Street Crimes Unit assisted the agency with the case.
On May 2, 2025, US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) officers stopped a Mexican couple attempting to drive across the Brownsville and Matamoros International Bridge into Mexico for a random search.
The CBP Officers found bundles of US dollars (totaling $148,610) hidden inside the couple's car. The driver was found to be carrying another $5,485 in cash. Officers found the woman was carrying even more money: $30,000 - again, all cash.
In all, US Federal Agents seized $184,095.
The woman has since been identified in Mexican newspaper reports as an employee of the Attorney General's Office of the Mexican State of Tamaulipas. US Homeland Security Investigations is handling the case.
Those three busts represent $1,379,660 in lost profits from cartel drug and human smuggling operations.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration's 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), US law enforcement officers seized almost $280,000,000 in cash in 2024.
The largest amounts of cash seized along the US Southern Border occurred in California & Texas. You can see the hotspots for cash seizures in those states (as well as in Arizona & New Mexico) in the map below:
However, the DEA also reports a disturbing trend involving those cash seizures. Over the past four years, the frequency of those seizures, as well as the total amount of cartel cash seized, has been falling sharply.
As the chart above indicates, total cash seizures nationwide peaked at one and a quarter billion dollars in 2021 and have amounted to well under $500 million each year since then.
Since it is unlikely that cartel profits have also fallen that sharply, the DEA report concludes this "could indicate a change in (cartel) money laundering preferences, such as a greater reliance on cryptocurrency."
The DEA assessment also notes that the cartels have been converting cash into real estate investments, expensive jewelry, vehicles, aircraft, and boats (some of which are used in their smuggling operations), while others support their "decadent lifestyles."
In 2024, the DEA reported that US law enforcement agencies seized $64 million worth of cartel-related real estate, nearly $50 million worth of airplanes, boats, and vehicles, and over $41 million in jewelry and precious metals.
Should more be done by US law enforcement to target cartel profits?
Share your opinions in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
A Dent to be sure Jack, thanks.
This news is simply awesome Jack - our thanks for your continuing coverage!