U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers stationed at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico recently made a seizure of 9.5 pounds of heroin in a single incident.
The seizure occurred on Oct. 12 when a 28-year old male Mexican citizen driving a 2005 Chevrolet 2500 pickup truck applied for entry at the port’s primary inspection station. Upon arrival, the man was referred for a more thorough, secondary inspection.
With the use of a non-intrusive narcotics detection canine team, the officers were alerted to suspicious activity emanating from within the pickup. After a brief search, agents discovered nine black plastic-wrapped packages concealed within the vehicle’s transfer case. On-site testing confirmed that the packages contained heroin.
CBP then arrested the individual and subsequently turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations unit for criminal processing and investigation.
“Smugglers went to considerable lengths to conceal this drug load,” CBP’s Santa Teresa Acting Port Director Jesse Proctor said. “The layers of enforcement CBP employs helped our officers locate and stop this shipment.”
CBP is the unified border agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and works to manage, control and protect the nation’s borders at and between official ports of entry.