Seized Shipment of Baby Wipes at US Border Revealed $11.8 Billion Worth of Cocaine
Nearly 1,500 pounds of alleged cocaine was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to officials. The estimated street value of the narcotics is $11.8 million.
Approximately 1,500 pounds of cocaine was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Friday, August 26 at the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge—the US-Mexico border—shared the agency in a news release.
“Officers assigned to CBP cargo facilities ensure effective border security by preventing and countering the flow of suspected narcotics entering the country,” said the Port Director Alberto Flores of the Laredo Port of Entry. “This seizure is a prime example of border security management and how it helps prevent dangerous narcotics from reaching our communities.”
The shipment’s street value totaled over $11,800,000. Colombia-Solidarity Bridge officers at the site on Friday recommended that a 2016 Stoughton trailer toting the massive shipment of baby wipes receive a second inspection. The truck was then pulled aside to get an extensive canine and non-intrusive examination. The exam revealed the discovery of “1,935 packages containing 1,532.65 pounds of alleged cocaine within the shipment.”
CBP has since seized the narcotics and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations agents continue to investigate the expensive shipment.
Director of Operations Randy Howe of the CBP office in Laredo called the bust a “colossal, recording setting seizure” and the "largest cocaine bust in 20 years" in a tweet on Monday.
According to Border agents, drug seizures have been on a downward trend this summer. In June and July they reported that they found a shipment of alleged cocaine worth more than $600,000 hidden in the tires of a trailer said to be shipping juice. They also found over $1M of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine at the same border crossing hidden in a shipment of statues.
