A Mexican man was arrested after trying to smuggle a large amount of meth into the U.S. by hiding it inside a cooler, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The incident happened on August 31 at a port of entry in Eagle Pass, Texas. Officers sent the man’s car for a secondary inspection, where drug-sniffing dogs uncovered about 27 pounds of meth worth more than $2 million, along with 2.3 pounds of cocaine.
CBP regularly reports similar cases. In one recent case, a Mexican woman was stopped while attempting to bring dozens of kilos of meth hidden in a truck’s fuel tank at the Paso del Norte crossing, which links Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. Officials said they found 60 packages weighing over 31 kilos inside the tank.
Another bust involved nearly 300 pounds of meth hidden inside solar panels. CBP shared in a late July post on social media that the shipment, headed for New Zealand, was intercepted at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) thanks to prior intelligence. “We do this every day. These ‘criminal masterminds’ never stood a chance,” the agency said.
Just a week earlier, CBP reported seizing $15 million worth of meth inside a tractor-trailer carrying carrots. The bust happened at the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility in Texas. After sending the truck for inspection, officers found more than 300 packages of meth weighing about 774 kilos. The agency said the drugs’ street value was estimated at over $15 million.
