Drug smugglers often ‘think outside the box’
Customs officers inspecting a tractor-trailer full of watermelons a few years ago discovered 1,100 pounds of meth hidden in fruit crates. The drugs seized during the inspection by border officials in California were valued at $2.5 million.
Smugglers are a creative group, officials say. They slip heroin into potato chip bags or cart cocaine in candy boxes. Authorities along the U.s.-mexico border report they’ve found drugs, weapons and even migrants being moved into the country in a variety of ways.
Texas’ proximity to Mexico makes the region a primary smuggling hub for drugs and illegal contraband, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration official.
Smuggling caught in the border region is investigated by the DEA, but also by Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol officials depending on what or who is being smuggled.
“Profit and greed” are the primary motivators, said Sally Sparks, a spokesperson at the DEA’S Houston field office.
“Drug traffickers go to extreme lengths to smuggle in drugs, which eventually devastates our communities,” she said. “It’s extremely common for drug traffickers to continuously ‘think outside of the box’ when it comes to smuggling drugs into the U.S. and evading detection and seizure.”
Cocaine, heroin, meth, fentanyl and other illicit drugs are the most commonly smuggled contraband, according to Sparks. Drug traffickers primarily move drugs and drug money into and through South Texas through the U.S. Postal Service or private and commercial transportation along a network of Texas highways and interstate roads, she added.
People smuggle things into the U.S. because they’re hoping to cash out, said Kevin Clement, a border security and human trafficking expert who is runs a course for foreign trade officials at the University of Houston.
That may have been the motivation for Pedro Rodriguez III, who is now serving federal prison time for bringing $650,000 of meth from Mexico in the gas tank of his car.
Cartels at the forefront
Clement and Sparks both said the proceeds from smuggling operations, especially from drug sales, account for the bulk of international cartels’ earnings.
The cartels are so eager to move product they’re bringing in drugs with high-tech drones, submarines, ultralight aircraft and planes, Clement said, adding, “Really, just use your imagination.”
Some high-level cartels use jet shark boats, which traverse the ocean like submarines and resemble the underwater predator, to avoid detection by the Coast Guard, Clement said.
As for ground transport, some smugglers, such as Vince Ruiz III of Humble, ferry in migrants in large trucks. Ruiz is serving a prison sentence for attempting to transport 20 migrants in two trailers marked “Fedex Ground.”
Veteran smugglers learn to be especially crafty when trying to conceal drugs, firearms or, for that matter, people.
Border Patrol and DEA agents, in turn, have become adept at quickly discerning things that appear unusual during inspections or searches, Clement said. Although they are “very good at what they do,” it is difficult to check everything when smugglers hide drugs in battery boxes, under seats, in fake walls, in fake ceilings, in fake compartments and inside random objects, like hollowed-out speakers or watermelons, he said.
“I mean, a couple of packages of fentanyl in the middle of a truck carrying 1,000 watermelons over the border, it’s hard as hell to discern where they are,” Clement said.
Some smuggled goods are shepherded in by willing participants. But the cartels are also known to compel migrants seeking to cross the border to carry drugs with them, said Clement, noting, “you don’t come across the border without dealing with the cartels.”
The cartels threaten the migrants and their families with violence if they refuse to smuggle illicit goods or try to run, he said.
The drug traffickers use migrants — sometimes as young as 4 or 5 — as sort of “indentured servants,” he said. And it’s the cartel that also determines how the drugs are brought across. Migrants crossing the border are sometimes forced to swallow drugs or hide them in body cavities, he said.
Chip bags and candy boxes
Other migrants have been arrested for trafficking, not by force, but for their own financial gain.
Maria Luisa Hernandez-alanis and Tania Melissa Coutino-Hernandez, who are both in their 40s, are in prison for trying to smuggle more than 2 pounds of heroin in two yellow potato chip bags hidden inside a purse. The women knew about the drugs and expected to be paid $300 each to bring in the loaded chip bags, the Justice Department said.
Nestor Alan Garcia, 45, will spend 12 years in federal prison for smuggling more than 6 kilograms of meth and nearly 3 kilograms of cocaine in a Pulparindo candy box, the Justice Department said. Garcia told police he coordinated the trafficking with his mother days ahead of an event for smugglers at the Hidalgo Port of Entry, Justice officials said.
Two 24-year-old Houston women, Clarissa Hernandez and Sarah Morales, are serving 10year terms in federal prison for trying to move more than $2 million of illicit drugs in the front and rear bumpers of their cars, according to the Justice Department.
The pair had 31 bundles of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl, which they’d transported in the bumpers of a Chevrolet sedan and Ford sport utility vehicle. The women also admitted they planned to buy firearms in Texas and export them to Mexico.