SANTA TERESA: U.S. customs officers seized 11 pounds of cocaine stashed in the bumper of a mini-van this week during a stop at New Mexico’s busiest port of entry. On Tuesday evening, officers staffing the Santa Teresa port stopped a 2005 Chrysler mini-van coming in from Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Officers noticed an anomaly in the vehicle’s rear bumper and, when they probed further, found four packages that tested positive for cocaine, CBP said. The load had an estimated street value of $352,000, according to CBP. “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. While drug mules trek marijuana through desert corridors in Luna and Hidalgo counties, higher-margin narcotics including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine are typically trafficked through ports of entry.
CBP officers arrested the mini-van driver, a 54-year-old Mexican man from Chihuahua, Mexico. He was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents to face charges in connection with the failed smuggling attempt.
