Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents joined local and federal law enforcement partners to raid four human smuggling stash houses. Despite the threat of the Coronavirus pandemic, cartel-connected human smugglers continue to put lives at risk by packing migrants into houses and tractor-trailer rigs without masks or other personal protection equipment.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Otay Mesa, California, seized a near-record 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin at a commercial port of entry. The seizure is the second-largest seizure along the southwest border with Mexico in the agency’s history.
Federal prosecutors in Dallas announced the arrest this month of two more men in connection to a sex trafficking conspiracy involving a 13-year-old girl. Agents rescued the missing girl from a Dallas-area motel in September 2019.
El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents teamed up with ICE agents and officers to disrupt a human smuggling operation in New Mexico. The effort resulted in the arrest of two human smugglers and 57 migrants from six countries.
A former Louisiana narcotics detective faces federal drug trafficking charges following a sting operation where authorities found eight kilos of cocaine. The former investigator previously served one year and nine months in prison on separate drug charges while being assigned to a federal task force with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Police arrested five people in Arizona following a months-long operation to combat child exploitation and sex trafficking, including a former detective out on bond for another arrest on the same charges.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly 360 pounds of methamphetamine during three failed drug smuggling attempts at South Texas border crossings. The seizures took nearly $8 million in drugs out of the hands of cartel-connected smugglers.
Federal officials called a cartel-connected smuggling tunnel under the Arizona-Mexico border “the most sophisticated tunnel in U.S. history.” The 1,300-foot structure stretched from a neighborhood in San Luis, Mexico, to its destination in San Luis, Arizona. Officials detected the tunnel prior to its completion, officials said.
A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas handed down prison sentences to three men involved in human smuggling and stash house operations. The trio smuggled more than 1,000 people in less than a year into Texas under extremely dangerous conditions.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 110 migrants in a 24-hour period in two separate human smuggling interactions. One involved a human smuggling stash house in Laredo, Texas. The second involved a tractor-trailer interdiction at an interior immigration checkpoint.
Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents discovered a human stash house on Friday. The raid followed a traffic stop by Nogales, Arizona, police officers which identified two Mexican illegal immigrants in a vehicle.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents recovered a large group of migrants being held in a stash house near the Texas border with Mexico. Border Patrol agents teamed up with Webb County Constable’s Office deputies and special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) to carry out the raid.
A federal task force in Southern California recently discovered a sophisticated cross-border tunnel running from Mexico to the United States. The task force seized significant quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and marijuana during a search of the connected San Diego-area warehouse.
A federal judge in West Texas handed down a combined prison sentence of 140 years to a couple who pleaded guilty to charges of producing and distributing child pornography. The couple sexually abused children and produced videos of the attacks.
A federal judge in South Texas sentenced two men to federal prison for selling guns to an undercover investigator. The undercover agent told the men the money for the guns, including machine guns, came from Mexico.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents teamed up with other federal and local law enforcement agencies to disrupt an active human smuggling stash house operation. The raid resulted in the rescue of 31 migrants.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials announced the discovery of what they are calling the “longest cross-border tunnel” under the California-Mexico boundary. The structure stretches more than three-quarters of a mile near Otay Mesa, California.
Mexican authorities are in a state of high alert over an intelligence alert from U.S. authorities warning about a possible suicide bomber traveling north with a group of four others. Breitbart published a redacted copy of the initial intelligence report from U.S. Border Patrol.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents discovered a drug-smuggling tunnel that extended from a house in Nogales, Arizona, to a wastewater pipeline leading to Mexico. The discovery led to the seizure of more than 200 pounds of drugs.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents teamed up with ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents and local law enforcement to rescue a large group of migrants from a stash house near the Texas border with Mexico.
A federal jury in Oklahoma found a Mexican national, illegally present in the U.S., guilty on charges of attempting to entice an 11-year-old girl into meeting him for sex and for possessing a fraudulent immigration document.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and Border Patrol agents seized 169 pounds of methamphetamine, 90 pounds of heroin, 11 pounds of fentanyl, and 29 pounds of cocaine during the past week at five separate vehicle inspection checkpoints in California and Arizona.
A migrant who illegally overstayed an immigration visa received two ten-year prison sentences from a federal court for possession of child pornography. Federal investigators found pornographic images involving children as young a three-years-old on his computers.
A Dallas federal court sentenced a five-time deported criminal alien to a 10-year prison term for illegally re-entering the United States after removal. The sentence is the maximum allowed under the federal sentencing guidelines. Senior U.S. District Court Judge John
Homeland Security Investigations special agents assigned to the El Paso Sector say they identified more than 200 fraudulent migrant families apprehended at the Texas border over the past six months.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia announced charges against the operator of the world’s “largest child sexual exploitation market” and hundreds of others in the U.S. and abroad. South Korean officials seized the dark web server which contained about eight terabytes of child porn content.
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents identified a migrant child being smuggled in what they call a fraudulent family unit. Border Patrol agents cared for the small child until officials with Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) arrived.
Federal authorities seized enough fentanyl to kill more than 14 million people following an investigation that covered Texas, North Carolina, and Virginia. The busts resulted in the arrests of 35 people and the seizure of distribution quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and cocaine base. Investigators also found weapons and cash during a three-day operation.
Two federal courts in Oklahoma handed down decades-long sentences to a pair of Universal Aryan Brotherhood gang members for drug trafficking and gun-related charges. Two of the gang members will serve a combined 48 years in federal prison.
A Bangladeshi national pleaded guilty in a Texas federal court Tuesday to smuggling numerous fellow countrymen into the United States. The smuggling network moved the Bangladeshi nationals, mostly men between the ages of 18-35, to South America where they made their way through Central America and Mexico.
