SANTA TERESA: U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations officers working at the Santa Teresa port of entry seized 11 pounds of cocaine Tuesday. The estimated street value of the contraband is $352,000. The seizure was made Tuesday evening when a 2005 Chrysler mini-van with an adult male driver entered the port from Mexico. A CBP officer initiated a secondary examination and noticed anomalies in the appearance of the vehicle’s rear bumper. Officers probed a suspicious area of the bumper and recovered a substance which tested positive for cocaine. A total of four cocaine-filled packages were recovered from the area. The drugs weighed a little over 11 pounds. “Experience and honed interviewing techniques were the only assets needed by the officers to end this smuggling attempt,” said CBP Santa Teresa Acting Port Director Jesse Proctor.
CBP officers arrested the driver, a 54-year-old Mexican male from Chihuahua, Mexico. He was turned over to ICE HSI special agents to face charges in connection with the failed smuggling attempt. While anti-terrorism is the primary mission of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the inspection process at the ports of entry associated with this mission results in impressive numbers of enforcement actions in all categories. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control, and protection of our Nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.
