Feds Seize $300K in Drugs at Texas Border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers assigned to the Eagle Pass Port of Entry seized more than $300,000 in heroin during a smuggling attempt at the Texas border over the weekend.

A woman, not identified by the CBP, from Eagle Pass, Texas, was attempting to cross from Piedras Negras into the U.S. when a K-9 officer alerted to the scent of drugs. Upon further inspection of the 2002 Dodge Caravan, officers found four packages of brown heroin. The drugs were concealed within the battery of the vehicle, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by the CBP.

The smuggling shipment contained 14.31 pounds of the brown heroin which carries an estimated value of $324,500.

While officers described the woman as an Eagle Pass resident, a records search by the CBP also revealed her to be a Mexican national with permanent legal resident status. She was described by CBP as a 47-year-old woman from Eagle Pass. CBP officials commonly will not release the name of a foreign national, but routinely will name any U.S. citizens they arrest.

“Smugglers will go to any extent to cross any sizeable drug load,” Eagle Pass Port Director John Brandt said in the statement. “CBP officers used their training and experience to deter the shipment from making it to its intended destination.”

The drugs and vehicle were seized by CBP officials and the unidentified woman was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation.

Piedras Negras is an area of Coahuila, Mexico, where Los Zetas drug cartels control the flow of drugs and human cargo. Breitbart Texas has reported extensively as to the brutality of this particular cartel. Recently Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby and reporter Ildefonso Ortiz travelled deep into Los Zetas territory in Mexico to reveal how the cartel used a network of ovens to carry out mass extermination of their enemies throughout the state.

In February, GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump took notice of the Breitbart Texas report and said, “We need to treat the drug cartels as though they are an enemy army.”

“An enemy army,” Trump reiterated in an interview with Bretbart’s Matthew Boyle. “That’s how we ought to treat them.”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.