Texas Border: Feds Seize $13M in Cartel Drugs
Cocaine smuggling routes hit
U.S. Federal Agents along the Texas Border with Mexico have cost Mexican Cartels millions of dollars of expected profits from their illegal drug smuggling through a series of more than half a dozen large busts over the past five weeks. Those efforts have kept around 13 million dollars worth of Mexican Cartel drugs from reaching US streets.
The largest drug seizure occurred on Sunday, May 4, 2025, at the Eagle Pass International Bridge. US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Officers inspecting a car arriving from Mexico discovered 74 foil-wrapped packages hidden inside. Those packages contained 164 pounds of meth with a street value of $3,324,608.
But most of the busts along the Texas border recently have involved cartel cocaine smugglers.
The largest of those cocaine busts happened on April 17, 2025, at the Paso Del Norte International Crossing in El Paso. CBP Officers there - aided by images from an X-ray machine and the keen nose of a K9 - found 36 bundles hidden in a floor compartment of a car driven by a Mexican citizen. The packages contained 94.5 pounds of cocaine. A load of that weight is worth around $3 million.
Another substantial cocaine bust happened during the past few days when two brothers in the cab of a semi-truck pulled up to a Border Patrol checkpoint south of Kingville on US Highway 77. Agents discovered their cargo of rubber goods also contained 17 bundles of cocaine weighing in at 40 pounds. That drug load was valued at $1,279,744.00.
This recent series of cocaine seizures began on April 2, 2025, on the Camino Real International Bridge in Eagle Pass when a car driven by a Mexican citizen caught the attention of CBP Officers.
Their suspicions paid off. They found 16 packages containing 36.81 pounds (16.70 kg) of cocaine concealed within the vehicle. The street value of the drugs is estimated at $491,581.
CBP officers at the Port of Hidalgo, Texas, intercepted $1,200,800 worth of cocaine hidden in three vehicles attempting to cross from Mexico through the Pharr, Hidalgo, and Anzalduas international crossings on April 11 & April 12, 2025. When officers weighed the 39 packages seized from the cartel smugglers, they totaled almost 93 pounds.
Those border crossings were a favorite smuggling route of the cartels in recent weeks:
On April 25, 2025, CBP officers assigned to the Pharr International Bridge inspecting a Mexican semi-truck found 30 packages of cocaine weighing 76.19 pounds - a drug load worth $1,017,300.
CBP Officers on the Hidalgo International Bridge nabbed another pair of cartel cocaine smugglers - one who tried crossing on Easter Sunday - and another who attempted to sneak a drug load into the US three days before.
The Easter Sunday drug load weighed in at 63.80 pounds with a street value worth more than $850,000. The drug load seized three days earlier weighed 71.16 pounds with a street value of $950,100.
Also worth noting: another pair of smuggling busts that contained a surprise for officers assigned to the International Bridges in Hidalgo earlier in April: The day began routinely enough (given what CBP officers there face daily) with a 73.41-pound cocaine seizure worth $980,218.
Next, CBP Officers looked inside a vehicle crossing from Mexico and found a spider monkey hidden in a backpack! Homeland Security Investigators, along with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agents arrested the car's driver and passenger. The monkey was taken to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas.
Should more be done to disrupt cartel smuggling operations along the US Southern Border?
Share your opinions in the comments to this article.
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
that's like one medium sized college’s weekend.
Not sure I believe that one from those who lie and misrepresent the truth on a daily basis.