Federal law enforcement officials announced the results of Operation Southern Surge during a Monday press conference in Laredo, Texas. The operation was described by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as a coordinated Homeland Security Task Force effort that has netted more than 1,600 pounds of narcotics, 15 firearms, and over $360,000 in cash since mid-October.
In the span of less than a week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers managed to derail the plans of two drug couriers to bring $657,000 in narcotics into the United States through a single port of entry. Two United States citizens are now facing criminal charges for their roles in the failed smuggling venture at the Del Rio, Texas, Port of Entry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found and seized more than 260 pounds of cocaine at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Southern California. Officers found the illicit drugs during a secondary inspection of a commercial passenger bus as the driver attempted to enter the United States from Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo, Texas, thwarted a narcotics smuggler’s attempt to bring $2.5 million in dangerous methamphetamine into the United States. The multi-million-dollar seizure occurred in late August in a region known to be one of the busiest Mexican drug cartel smuggling corridors on the southwest border.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents teamed up with the Mexican Navy to seize nearly seven tons of cocaine during operations in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Officials estimate the street value of the drugs to be more than $120 million (USD).
The alleged leader of an Irish organized crime gang is on his way back to Ireland from Dubai to face charges that he ran an international drug smuggling and money laundering empire with tentacles that stretched to Britain, Spain and the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Brownsville-Matamoros International Bridge in South Texas shut down a cartel smuggling attempt to import nearly $300,000 in cocaine on July 7. The port is part of CBP’s Laredo Field Office, which is currently the second-busiest region behind San Diego for narcotics seizures this fiscal year.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Miami, Florida intercepted 22 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride at an air cargo warehouse near Miami International Airport. The officers are part of a special operation targeting narcotics smuggling activity during the FIFA World Cup 2026.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at ports of entry in Texas have seized more than 9,000 pounds of methamphetamine with a street value of more than $80 million in just four incidents during the month of June. The thwarted cartel smuggling attempts occurred in Laredo, El Paso, and Pharr, Texas.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at a Laredo, Texas, Port of Entry stopped smugglers from entering the United States with more than 1,100 pounds of methamphetamine. The agency determined the seizure had a street value of more than $10.1 million.
Authorities in Mexico reported the discovery of a narco-tunnel that spanned almost the length of three football fields and connected the border city of Tijuana with San Diego. The discovery comes at a time of great tension between the U.S. and Mexico’s government over the widespread corruption and cartel influence throughout the country.
A suspected drug trafficker chose the busy Memorial Day weekend to attempt to traffic $1.1 million in cocaine across the Progreso International Bridge. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working the holiday weekend shattered the suspect’s hopes when they discovered the illicit contraband hidden in the suspected cartel smuggler’s vehicle.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers discovered more than $1.2 million worth of cocaine in just two events at the Hidalgo and Pharr, Texas, international bridges. The events occurred within days of each other and highlight recent attempts by Mexican drug cartels to use land ports of entry as they struggle to operate under the tighter border security measures put in place by the Trump administration.
COVAM, the Spanish Navy’s main maritime surveillance body, has identified over 600 speedboats suspected of actively engaging in drug trafficking operations around the Strait of Gibraltar.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry recently found and seized more than 225 pounds of cocaine in a single smuggling event. The late-April seizure demonstrates the agency’s ability to focus on defeating cartel smuggling networks that continue to probe the heightened Trump border security posture for weaknesses.
A former city official from the border city of Matamoros remains in federal custody after U.S. law enforcement agents arrested him in connection with the attempted smuggling of cocaine in Texas. Since information about the arrest went public, the City of Matamoros has tried to distance itself from the case, claiming that he had stopped working there months before his arrest.
The U.S. Southern Command conducted a “lethal kinetic strike” against a drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing “six male narco-terrorists.”
Belgian judge Bart Willocx, President of the Antwerp Court of Appeal, warned Monday the country is at risk of turning into a narco-state as a result of international drug crime and mafia groups forming a “parallel force” in society.
A drag show host from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and a cosmetologist pleaded not guilty to their alleged roles in a cocaine smuggling scheme that took place in Hidalgo, Texas. Axl Omar Palacios, 27, who lives in the Mexican border city, entered a not guilty plea on Tuesday at the federal courthouse in McAllen, Texas.
In a radio interview on Friday, President Donald Trump surprisingly revealed that American forces have neutralized at least one smuggling facility in Venezuela, the first land strike in Trump’s campaign against Venezuelan narco-terrorists and dictator Nicolas Maduro.
A U.S. Coast Guard crew offloaded a mountain of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars in San Diego, California, on Monday.
Lithuanian authorities said Tuesday they had arrested 21 people allegedly connected to a criminal network that smuggled cigarettes using specially equipped weather balloons from Russia-allied Belarus which have violated the Baltic country’s airspace in recent weeks.
America’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived in the Caribbean on Tuesday, joining eight other warships and a nuclear submarine in the region.
Spanish police arrested 13 suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, seized a stash of illegal drugs and dismantled two drug laboratories, authorities said Friday.
The U.S. military conducted another lethal strike on boat piloted by alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed Saturday.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury outed and sanctioned a human smuggling organization based in Cancun that focused on moving the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and South America. The organization used yachts to move thousands of migrants into Mexico, from where it would work with other groups to get them to California.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents interdicted a team of Mexican cartel drug smuggling mules as they crossed the border into Texas. The four illegal aliens dropped backpacks and fled back to Mexico, leaving 69 pounds of cocaine for the agents to recover.
Drug gang crime has become so out of control in Brussels that military forces will be deployed to the Belgian capital, the government announced this weekend.
A recently extradited cartel boss from Mexico, who is facing numerous federal drug trafficking charges in Virginia, was a favored government contractor in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. The state is controlled by the controversial governor from the MORENA party, Americo Villarreal.
Greek police said Sunday they seized over 270 kilograms (595 pounds) of cocaine with an estimated value of over 5.5 million euros ($6.5 million) and arrested three men.
British authorities seized 2.4 metric tons of cocaine in a ship arriving in England from Panama, authorities said Saturday, calling it one of the U.K.’s biggest drug busts in years.
Texas Department of Public Safety special agents seized approximately $2.4 million worth of methamphetamine after Customs and Border Protection officers discovered the load being smuggled into Texas from Mexico. Troopers arrested the driver for allegedly smuggling the drugs into the United States.
Border Patrol agents in San Diego found a sophisticated cross-border smuggling tunnel that connects California to Tijuana, Mexico. The tunnel reportedly extended more than 1,000 feet into the United States from Mexico.
A Texas Department of Public Safety K-9 team responded to a call for assistance from local law enforcement to help capture a fleeing suspected fentanyl smuggler. The team searched a ranch approximately 150 miles north of the Texas-Mexico border and found the fugitive in a dirt and brush pile.
Former U.S. college basketball player Jarred Shaw could face the death penalty in Indonesia after his arrest for allegedly smuggling cannabis candy drugs.
The Trump administration awarded a contract for the construction of new border wall segments along the Texas-Mexico border. This is the first such award of the president’s second term.
Mexican authorities tried to take a share of the credit for a large-scale meth seizure that was carried out by officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Roma, Texas.
Las autoridades mexicanas intentaron obtener parte del crédito por una incautación de metanfetamina a gran escala que en realidad fue realizada por oficiales de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CBP) de Estados Unidos en Roma, Texas.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) cast the only no vote on a bill requiring an annual report to Congress on cross-border cartel smuggling tunnels. The bill, H.R. 495, passed the House Monday on a vote of 402-1.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly blamed Americans struggling with addiction as the cause of her country facing a new set of tariffs from the Trump administration. She chose to blame victims of cartel drug trafficking rather than ruthless drug lords who enjoy the protection of Mexico’s government.
