When stories like this pop up it makes one wonder if the person didn’t, for some reason, get caught on purpose. Because no one can really be this dumb, right? That or they have somehow done it before and gotten away with it so often that they thought they had the system beat and were bulletproof.
Either way, the driver of a 2011 Dodge Ram pickup truck hauling a shipment manifested as “polypropylene” will probably be going away for a long, long time.
Because on Friday, June 19, at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas, the Ram driver was trying to cross the border with 7,047.73 pounds of suspected methamphetamine. He didn’t make it through.
Instead, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer pulled him out of line for a secondary inspection. Following a canine and nonintrusive inspection system examination, CBP officers discovered the shipment of “polypropylene” also contained meth with a street value of $63,002,534.
Meanwhile, down the road in Pharr, Texas…
The Texas Customs and Border Protection officers didn’t stop there, though. That same day, CBP officers at the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility encountered a tractor-trailer attempting to enter the United States from Reynosa, Mexico.
After inspectors referred the semi-truck for further inspection using nonintrusive inspection equipment, the officers identified anomalies in the trailer.
Physical inspection of the trailer by the CBP officers resulted in the seizure of 193 packages of alleged methamphetamine with a combined weight of 1,042.78 pounds concealed within the trailer. Those narcotics had a total street value of $9,321,884.
“These large-scale cargo methamphetamine seizures, both taken the same day at different ports of entry within the Laredo Field Office, underscore the serious drug threat our officers are facing as well as their resolve to stem the flow of this poison into the U.S.,” said Director of Field Operations Donald R. Kusser of the Laredo Field Office. “Our frontline officers remain committed to carrying out our border security mission, as exemplified by these significant enforcement actions.”