Border Patrol Seizes Over $850,000 of Meth

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. – Wednesday night, U.S. Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint north of El Paso, seized narcotics worth more than $800,000 from a single vehicle.

While conducting a routine immigration inspection, Border Patrol Agents stopped a gray Saturn Vue for further investigation. Agents interviewed the driver, a United States citizen. After the driver consented to a vehicle search, a U.S. Border Patrol canine performed a non-intrusive inspection of the vehicle and alerted, indicating the possible presence of narcotics. A secondary search using X-Ray technology found anomalies in the rear quarter panels of the vehicle.

Border Patrol agents then conducted a thorough search of the vehicle and found 17 bundles wrapped in clear cellophane and tin foil – a type of concealment method often used by narcotics smugglers. The bundles contained over 25 pounds of methamphetamine. The street value of the meth is estimated at more than $850,000. The vehicle was seized by the United States Border Patrol; the driver and narcotics were turned over to DEA.

Checkpoints located outside the El Paso area serve as a secondary line of defense. Drug seizures like this one keep these dangerous drugs from polluting communities in the interior of our nation.