Texas Border: Monkeys, Migrants & More Drug Busts
US Customs & Border Protection Officers & Border Patrol Agents have had their hands full along the Rio Grande.
Drug busts and monkey seizures have been occurring along the US Border in Texas in recent days - just another day at the office for Border Patrol & Customs & Border Protection Agents.
Let's start with the monkeys - which likely caught your attention when you saw this article's headline:
Border Patrol Agents discovered them in the vehicle of a smuggler who attempted to drive the five primates through a checkpoint on US Highway 77 in Sarita (south of Kingsville). The monkeys were turned over to US Fish & Wildlife Agents - who typically place them in Brownsville's Gladys Porter Zoo for care & feeding.
In El Paso, Border Patrol Agents recently raided a human smuggling "stash house" and found 25 migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Colombia inside. They will be processed for deportation.
El Paso Sector Border Patrol Agents also had to shift to "rescue mode" to save four migrants who tried to cross the desert during extreme winter weather conditions in recent days. The migrants called 911 when it began snowing:
But much of the recent action involving federal law enforcement officers along the Texas - Mexico border has centered around large drug busts.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers seized close to a million dollars worth of cocaine a smuggler attempted to drive over the Pharr International Bridge hidden inside a tractor on January 14, 2025.
CBP Officers discovered almost 74 pounds of cocaine worth $987,872 inside the machinery as it crossed into the United States from Reynosa, Mexico.
On January 15, 2025, CBP Officers on the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo also intercepted a large load of cocaine as it was being smuggled into Texas from Mexico.
They found more than 51 pounds of cocaine inside an SUV being driven by a US citizen. The narcotics had a street value of $721,182.
On the same day, CBP Officers on the Brownsville and Matamoros International Bridge stopped a large load of heroin from entering the country.
They intercepted almost nine and a half pounds of heroin worth more than $158,000 as it was being smuggled into Texas. CBP officers seized the narcotics along with the vehicle. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested the driver and are conducting a further investigation into this smuggling attempt.
Do you believe enough is being done to catch smugglers along the Texas - Mexico border?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
Hi Jack, thanks. smuggled-in monkeys was not on my bingo. any idea what the market and/or cultural preferences are for having these types of monkeys 🐒? thinking out loud… how big would such a market for the poor monkeys be? how much would one of these monkeys be sold for? my first association that came to mind is roosters for cock fighting for gambling... i continue to be astounded at my “cultural-enrichment journey”. reminds me of a local news report about five years ago: a southeast asian asylum seeker (. forget which country), with a penchant for slingshot-hunting birds in public parks. am I free associating too much here, that the monkey smuggling is something culturally repugnant, I ask myself…