A tractor-trailer manifested as hauling salt rolled up to the Laredo Port of Entry on Oct. 12 and ended up carrying something far more valuable: 76 bags of alleged methamphetamine with an estimated street value topping $30 million. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers pulled the rig aside for a secondary inspection at the World Trade Bridge.
What Officers Found Inside the Truck
According to KGNS, a CBP officer referred the 2020 International LT625 tractor for further inspection after it arrived with a trailer manifested as carrying salt. Instead, officers discovered 76 bags containing 3,395.91 pounds of alleged methamphetamine, with the narcotics carrying a reported street value of $30,355,444. CBP seized the drugs, but the station notes that the driver, tractor and trailer were released following the stop.
Homeland Security Investigations special agents are now investigating the seizure, the station reports. CBP's Laredo Field Office oversees eight ports from Brownsville to Del Rio.
Officials Address the Seizure at World Trade Bridge
CBP and HSI held a joint press conference Thursday at the World Trade Bridge to discuss the bust, with the event originally scheduled for 1 p.m. CST, per the station's report. Senior CBP and HSI officials were expected to attend. HSI San Antonio Special Agent in Charge John A. Pasciucco delivered remarks underscoring the seizure of more than 3,300 pounds of methamphetamine, according to a post from HSI San Antonio
on X.
A Record-Setting Year for Laredo Drug Seizures
This latest bust fits into a broader surge along the South Texas border. Seizures of hard narcotics — cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl — rose 62% in the Laredo Field Office region compared with the previous fiscal year, according to lmtonline.com. Methamphetamine made up the largest share of those seizures in fiscal 2025, with officers confiscating 54,994 pounds of the drug.
Overall, the Laredo Field Office reported seizing more than 71,700 pounds of narcotics during fiscal 2025, the outlet reports, with a combined estimated street value of nearly $674 million. Thursday's seizure alone accounts for a meaningful chunk of that total value, underscoring just how much methamphetamine continues to move through the region's ports of entry.
