U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations at the Hidalgo and Pharr International Bridges arrested three people in connection with two failed drug smuggling attempts of cocaine with a combined street value of $880,500 in Hidalgo, Texas.
The first seizure occurred on Oct. 27, 2020 at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge after a U.S. Customs officer referred a 26-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman, both U.S. citizens driving a Dodge Caliber for further inspection. A non-intrusive imaging exam allowed the officers to discover 12 packages of alleged cocaine weighing 36.24 pounds concealed within the vehicle’s gas tank. The narcotics were valued at $279,500.
Later that day, at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, a U.S. Customs officer encountered a 34-year-old woman driving a 2013 Dodge Avenger arriving from Mexico and referred her for a secondary inspection. Officers conducing the secondary examination located 30 packages of cocaine weighing 78 pounds hidden within the car. This interception of cocaine is valued at $601,000.
U.S. Customs seized all the narcotics, both vehicles, and arrested the three people involved in the failed smuggling attempts.
