HIDALGO, Texas—Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the Hidalgo International Bridge seized $245,000 worth of methamphetamine and arrested a woman from Mercedes, Texas in connection with this failed smuggling attempt.
“Our officers’ outstanding sense of awareness and excellent observational skills enabled them to intercept this compact but significant amount of hard narcotics that could have gone undetected, had it not been for their great commitment towards the CBP mission of keeping dangerous drugs out of our communities,” said Efrain Solis Jr., port director, Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas.
The incident occurred on Wednesday night, March 12, after CBP officers came in contact with a 22-year-old female United States citizen as a passenger in a Mexican based taxicab. Claiming United States citizenship and having only presented a State of Texas identification card, she was referred to secondary for further inspection. While inspecting the female, officers discovered packages of suspected narcotics hidden within her luggage and ultimately, two packages of alleged methamphetamine weighing approximately 3.48 kilograms (7.67 lbs.) were removed and seized.
CBP arrested the adult female and she was then released to the custody of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents for further investigation.