By Steve Neavling
CBP officers at the Laredo Port of Entry seized more than $24.5 million worth of methamphetamine from a tractor-trailer carrying a shipment of acrylic paint.
The bust comes at a time when federal authorities are seeing a huge increase in meth seizures.
“The nation continues to experience an epidemic of drug trafficking and drug dependence,” Acting Port Director Eugene Crawford, Laredo Port of Entry said in a statement. “Nevertheless, as this massive methamphetamine seizure illustrates, our frontline CBP officers maintain heightened vigilance and bring all of our high tech tools and resources to bear against criminal organizations attempting to smuggle contraband into the United States.”
CPB officers assigned to the cargo facility encountered the shipment on March 3 and referred the tractor-trailer for a canine and non-intrusive imagine system inspection. Officers discovered 28 containers filled with about 1,235 pounds of meth.
CBP turned the investigation over to ICE-Homeland Security Investigations.
In October, the DEA made the biggest meth seizure in American history – 2,224 pounds of the drug recovered in California. The announcement came just three days before CBP announced its second largest meth seizure on Oct. 9 at the Otay Mesa Port Entry in San Diego. CBP officers seized more than 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, along with 64 pounds heroin, 29 pounds of fentanyl powder and 37 pounds of pills.
Last year, meth overdoses rose 25%.
