El Paso Sector Customs and Border Protection officers seized more than 1,500 pounds of liquid methamphetamine at the Ysleta Port of Entry. The seizure more than triples the total of all methamphetamine seizures at El Paso area ports for Fiscal Year 2019.
CBP officers assigned to the Ysleta Port of Entry observed a tractor-trailer approaching late last week. The officers selected the truck for a random inspection in the commercial cargo area used for shipments arriving from Mexico, according to information obtained from El Paso Sector CBP officials.
The trailer contained a load of “multi-use cleaner,” officials reported. During the inspection, the officers determined 32 bottles of the load contained liquid methamphetamine. The shipment of the contraband weighed 1,543 pounds.
“This is a huge seizure and more than triples the 425 pounds of methamphetamine seized by CBP officers working El Paso area ports for all of fiscal year 2019,” Hector Mancha, CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations said in a written statement.
Officials did not disclose an estimated value of the drugs. Based on previously reported seizures, the load of liquid meth could have a street value of more than $102 million.
“What we do at our borders … impacts every community, not just along the southwest border,” CBP Acting-Commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters just days before this seizure. “Methamphetamine seizures and meth-related deaths are up. That’s a fact that should be a wake-up call for everyone that’s unaware of the nexus between America’s drug epidemic and our borders — specifically the southwest border.”
Morgan cited data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showing that from May 2018 to May 2019 there were nearly 25 percent more deaths involving meth than the previous year.
“When we encounter the drugs at the southwest border we know exactly where they are going,” the commissioner stated emphatically, “into every town, city, and community in this country. Just last month alone, CBP seized more than 53,736 pounds of drugs and just over 50,000 pounds were seized on the southwest border. This year drug seizures are up 51 percent from last year.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.