Border agents seize $11.4 million worth of hard drugs

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials seized millions of dollars' worth of illicit narcotics in two separate operations, the agency announced Friday.

Agents on Tuesday discovered "32 packages containing 80.73 pounds of alleged cocaine" in a truck at the World Trade Bridge with an estimated value of $1,077,946. Later that same evening, CBP discovered in another vehicle "71 packages containing 31.39 pounds of alleged heroin and 2,551 packages containing 1047.19 pounds of alleged methamphetamine."

The total estimated street value of those drugs was $10,412,400, for a combined total of $11,490,346 worth of seizures from those two busts alone.

"CBP continues to work with our law enforcement partners to foil illicit transnational criminal organization attempts to smuggle their product through our cargo facilities," Port Director Alberto Flores, Laredo Port of Entry, said in the CBP press release. "These significant seizures are prime examples of how CBP’s border security management aids in the prevention of prohibited contraband from crossing the border."

Amid the unprecedented migration surge at the southern border, drug traffickers have escalated their operations, shipping vast amounts of illegal drugs into the United States. In July alone, border agents seized more than 2,000 pounds of fentanyl, an amount it estimated was enough to kill 470 million people, well over the total population of the country.