DOCUMENTARY

DAVE, 8pm

America’s border with Mexico is probably the most talked about frontier in the world, thanks to President Donald Trump. More than half of America’s southern border is created by the Rio Grande, the river separating Texas from Mexico, and it has become one of the most notorious dividing lines. Protecting it is a force of around 5,000 officers who must monitor the gateway for illegal contraband, weapons and dangerous narcotics. It’s a phenomenal task and in this documentary cameras follow members of Customs and Border Protection as they police the 28 bridges and check that the goods and commuters crossing are legitimate.

As well as the regular interception of illicit items, we also see prisoner extraditions and multi-million dollar drug hauls.

In this episode, heroin disguised in a computer laptop baffles the world’s most advanced narcotic detection device, while the diligence of agriculture specialists pays off – and saves America’s forests and countryside from a potentially devastating insect infestation.

It’s all far more gripping than any fictional police crime thriller.