SAN ANTONIO (NewsNation) — Mexican drug cartels are becoming more strategic, relying on Americans to smuggle drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Smuggling groups are luring U.S. citizens to avoid suspension at legal ports of entry, knowing they don’t face the same level of vetting.
As smugglers grow more creative and desperate, Customs and Border Protection agents are using every tool, ranging from interviews to x-rays, to stop them before the drugs hit U.S. streets and cause harm.
Americans smuggling for cartels
So far this month, U.S. border authorities stopped two men on separate days who attempted to sneak drugs across the border inside their bodies — one with meth, the other with fentanyl. Both were U.S. citizens.
Experienced CBP officers at the Ysleta international crossing in El Paso, Texas, were able to stop the smugglers during quick interviews.
On March 30, officers arrested a 26-year-old man, found two bundles of meth concealed between his buttocks. The next day, officers arrested a 41-year-old man carrying fentanyl inside his rectum at the same crossing.
CPB officials emphasized that if the fentanyl packed had ruptured, it could have killed the smuggler before he reached the hospital.
Texas bust seizes $3.2M worth of meth
This high-risk tactic is becoming more common, particularly among U.S. citizens, raising concerns along the southern border.
On April 4, Border Patrol agents working at the Javier Vega Jr. checkpoint in Kingsville, Texas, stopped a vehicle carrying more than 100 pounds of meth, valued at $3.2 million. The driver was also a U.S. citizen.
According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, nearly 82% of people convicted for drug trafficking in 2023 were U.S. citizens.
