Federal customs officers at two busy South Texas ports of entry this month say they yanked roughly $70 million worth of suspected methamphetamine out of commercial traffic, after routine cargo checks turned into major drug busts at Laredo's World Trade Bridge and the Pharr International Bridge.
At World Trade Bridge: truck flagged for closer look
According to Fox San Antonio, Customs and Border Protection officers at the World Trade Bridge referred a 2011 Dodge Ram stake-bed pickup, listed as hauling polypropylene, to secondary inspection. A nonintrusive imaging scan and a canine team then uncovered 7,047.73 pounds of suspected methamphetamine, with the station putting the street value at about $63 million. CBP seized both the narcotics and the truck, the outlet reported.
Pharr bridge inspection uncovers more than 1,000 pounds
At the Pharr International Bridge, officers sent a tractor-trailer arriving from Reynosa to secondary and found 193 packages weighing a combined 1,042.78 pounds of suspected methamphetamine. The Epoch Times reported the load has an estimated street value of about $9.3 million. Homeland Security Investigations has opened criminal probes into both bridge cases, the outlet added.
Separate Laredo stop reported earlier in the month
Local coverage also highlighted a separate, earlier seizure tied to the same border hub. The Laredo Morning Times reported that on June 15, CBP officers at the World Trade Bridge stopped a 2013 Volvo hauling polypropylene and recovered 1,100.79 pounds of suspected methamphetamine, valued at about $10.1 million. The differing dates and vehicle descriptions in local reporting point to multiple enforcement actions across the Laredo Field Office rather than one single mega-bust.
What CBP officials are saying
Donald R. Kusser, director of field operations for CBP’s Laredo Field Office, praised officers' targeting work and said the recent discoveries highlight a serious narcotics threat in the region, according to KABB. CBP says it seized all of the vehicles involved and turned both bridge cases over to Homeland Security Investigations for criminal inquiry, the station reported.
Bigger picture: record loads at the Southwest border
The South Texas busts line up with a broader trend of increasingly large seizures at Southwest border ports of entry. Citing agency figures, The Epoch Times reports that CBP had seized roughly 583,000 pounds of illegal narcotics through the first eight months of fiscal 2026, totals that outpace recent years.
Smugglers have repeatedly tried to hide bulk meth loads in commercial freight. Hoodline previously covered a September 2025 World Trade Bridge interception that seized $16M in mango-hidden meth, a reminder that even seemingly mundane cargo can mask high-dollar narcotics shipments.
