Border Patrol Seizes $2.2 Million of Meth at Interior Texas Checkpoint

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents seized more than $2 million in methamphetamine at an inland checkpoint located about 70 miles from the Texas-Mexico border.

Agents assigned to the Kingsville Station’s Javier Vega, Jr. Checkpoint observed a passenger vehicle approaching for inspection.
Agents conducted a physical inspection of the vehicle and located more than 100 bundles of methamphetamine. Agents reported the contraband weighed nearly 70 pounds and has an estimated street value of $2.2 million.

Officials stated the agents arrested the driver and passenger of the vehicle but provided no information as to their citizenship, nationality, or immigration status.

Border Patrol agents turned the driver and passenger, along with the drugs, over to the Drug Enforcement Administration for further investigation and possible drug smuggling charges.

Inland inspection stations are an effective tool for Border Patrol agents in their duties to interdict human and drug smuggling efforts. Due to the overwhelming numbers of Central American migrant families and unaccompanied minors who are crossing the border illegally, several sectors have shut down inland inspection stations in order to move agents to the border, Breitbart News reported in March.

Earlier this month, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official told Breitbart News that migrant crossings in “large groups” are having a negative impact on the agency’s ability to carry out its national security mission. CBP defines “large groups” as 100 or more migrants crossing the border together.

So far this fiscal year, there have more than 140 large groups apprehended after illegally crossing the border. These groups represent more than 22,000 people, the official stated.

More than 80 of the large groups were apprehended in what he described as remote locations in New Mexico and Arizona (El Paso and Yuma Sectors).

These large group apprehensions in remote locations shut down border security operations in a wide area as all available Border Patrol agents are consolidated to transport and process the migrants in the large groups, the CBP official stated.