CBP Field Operations seize $1.4M in mixed narcotics at Hidalgo International Bridge

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel staffing the Office of Field Operations at the Hidalgo and Anzalduas International Bridges foiled a drug smuggling attempt yielding a $1.4 million seizure.

“These were two great interceptions of hard narcotics that our officers were able to detect and keep from entering our country and possibly causing harm to members of our community,” Carlos Rodriguez, port director at Port of Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas, said.

Authorities said the first seizure occurred on Oct. 2, 2019, at the Anzalduas-Reynosa International Bridge, when an officer encountered a Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, woman in a black 2018 Nissan March. Preliminary inspection revealed a suspicious package in the woman’s purse subsequently alleged to be cocaine, weighing 2.64 pounds and valued at $21,000.

The second seizure occurred at the Hidalgo International Bridge, where a CBP officer referred a 20-year-old woman from Houston and the blue 2005 Ford F-150 she was driving for further inspection.

A canine team assisted officers in discovering 52.38 pounds of alleged methamphetamine in bulk form and two packages of suspected heroin weighing 5.73 pounds.

The street value of the methamphetamine is $1,048,000 and $344,000 for the heroin. The Office of Field Operations seized all the narcotics and both vehicles and arrested the two women involved in the failed drug smuggling attempts.