U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Paso del Norte Port of Entry in downtown El Paso stopped a pickup on Feb. 28 and uncovered 139.5 kilograms of illegal drugs hidden inside the vehicle. The haul, found during a secondary inspection, included large quantities of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine that officials say would have posed a major public health and law enforcement threat if it had made it onto U.S. streets.
How officers detected the shipment
According to KFOX14, the seizure began when a Mexican man driving a white 2016 Dodge Ram with Mexican license plates applied for admission at the Paso del Norte crossing. A non-intrusive inspection technology scan flagged anomalies, a narcotics-detection canine alerted, and a follow-up search turned up 122 bundled packages concealed inside the truck.
What agents recovered
CBP officers ultimately pulled 107 bundles of cocaine totalling about 122.84 kilograms, 13 bundles of fentanyl totalling about 14.86 kilograms, and two bundles of methamphetamine totalling about 1.84 kilograms, KFOX14 reported. Port Director Ray Provencio praised his officers in a statement cited by the station, saying the interception “prevented a major narcotics load from entering the United States and causing harm to American citizens.”
Why the fentanyl quantity matters
The fentanyl portion of the load is especially alarming. The Drug Enforcement Administration notes that as little as two milligrams can be lethal, and by rough calculation, 14.86 kilograms would equal roughly 7.4 million 2 milligram doses. That kind of potency, along with the DEA’s repeated warnings about fentanyl in counterfeit pills and mixed shipments, is a key reason CBP pours resources into catching synthetic opioids at ports of entry, as reported by the DEA.
Where this fits in recent enforcement
Big drug busts at El Paso crossings are not rare. A November 2025 roundup described more than 263 kilograms seized across multiple El Paso ports in a single week, a reminder of how much traffickers try to push through the region. Coverage of that week’s activity, which highlighted over 260 kilos in a week, as per Hoodline, reviewed CBP releases that credited non-intrusive scanning and canine teams for recent seizures, and CBP’s El Paso office has routinely described sending seizure cases to federal investigators for follow-up, according to CBP
Local reporting on the Feb. 28 stop included a CBP photo and the port director’s statement, but did not list any public charges or court filings tied to this discovery. Federal partners such as Homeland Security Investigations typically decide on prosecutions after CBP makes a seizure at a port of entry.
