US Border: Cartels Lose Millions to US Agents
Drug seizures keep adding up, as Mexican Authorities also pressure cartels
The Cartels have experienced some bad days along the border recently - losing more than two million dollars worth of cocaine to federal agents in a continuing series of large drug busts along the US Southern Borders that are eating into their profits.
Meanwhile, from the Mexican side of the border comes word of a raid of a large Cartel Drug Lab as well as the arrests of some Cartel Gunrunners transporting weapons and ammo.
Let's start with the drug seizures on the US side of the border:
US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) officers in South Texas on the Pharr International Bridge seized more than a million dollars worth of Cartel Cocaine inside an SUV driven into the US by a Mexican citizen on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. With the help of a K9, they discovered 35 packages containing 82.36 pounds of cocaine hidden throughout that vehicle.
On the same day, CBP Officers upriver on the Rio Grande seized almost half a million dollars worth of Cartel Cocaine found inside another SUV being driven by a Mexican citizen crossing into Texas on Laredo's Juarez-Lincoln Bridge. Officers discovered 15 packages containing 37 pounds of Carrel Cocaine hidden in that vehicle. The narcotics had an estimated street value of $498,940.
Cartel Smugglers will often "dump" their drug loads to avoid arrest if they suspect federal agents are onto them - which is apparently what happened recently twelve miles offshore of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A boater alerted authorities after spotting a suspicious burlap bag floating nearby on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025.
The US Coast Guard and US Border Patrol responded - and found the bag contained 25 bricks of cocaine weighing in at 65 pounds. That's another lost load of Cartel Cocaine worth more than $875,000.
Meanwhile, Border Patrol Agents in Tucson recovered a dumped 15-pound load of Cartel Cocaine worth more than 200 thousand dollars they discovered inside a backpack in the Arizona desert two weeks ago.
South of the border, near Monterey, Mexico, Agents of Mexico's Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) accompanied by members of the Mexican Army, Navy, and National Guard - as well as Agents of Mexico's Attorney General's Office this month raided a Cartel Drug Lab located in an industrial neighborhood.
Aerial photos of the lab released by the Mexican Government show this was no small-scale operation. This Cartel Lab occupied an entire city block with storage space for large amounts of chemicals needed to produce large amounts of illegal drugs.
Once inside, agents found sulfuric acid and caustic soda inside many of the containers these are precursor chemicals typically used to produce synthetic drugs like Fentanyl or Methamphetamine.
Finally, just across the border from McAllen, Texas - in Reynosa -agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency of Mexico's Attorney General's Office (FGR-AIC) took down some well-armed gunrunners.
The two men were in possession of 18 long guns, five short pistols, 115 cartridges, and 22 magazines of different caliber ammunition.
According to the Tijuana, Mexico daily newspaper "El Mexicano," these arrests are a result of "Operation Northern Border," an ongoing effort by Mexico's federal authorities targeting drug & gun smuggling as well as human trafficking along Mexico's border with the US.
The newspaper says so far, Operation Northern Border has resulted in 139 arrests and the seizure of more than 12,000 rounds of ammunition and 82 firearms, 28 of which came from the United States.
Do you believe these busts are seriously disrupting Mexican Cartel Smuggling Operations?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
