Every year, over 200,000 tons of drugs are seized
at the U.S. Mexico border.
The sheer number of travelers we get,
we have to always be vigilant.
Cartels rely on a network of couriers to smuggle
in their narcotics.
Today, at the Eagle Pass International Bridge...
Bravo 18, Bravo 18, Tango Hotel, lane 3.
...officers have received a tip-off
that a driver returning from Mexico
may be smuggling cartel drugs in her vehicle.
This vehicle was referred for an enforcement inspection.
The car is sent to the Z portal for X-ray.
I noticed anomalies on the floor
and under the seat on the passenger side,
and also I can see some dense areas under the driver.
And usually, it should be able to see through.
It's throughout the floor, on both sides.
Officer Guzman suspects the dark shadows could be
hidden contraband.
Right now, this subject is gonna be detained,
and she's gonna be placed in a cell.
We're gonna tear the vehicle apart to find out what it is.
If drugs are found,
she could be facing a long stretch behind bars.
Let's go.
K-9 to secondary.
We found something.
- Mike-- Mike. - Go ahead.
It's positive.
Are we gonna be put to jail?
We have to do what we have to do.
The Gateway International Bridge
separates Brownsville, Texas,
from the city of Matamoros, Mexico.
What'd you go to Mexico for?
Each day, thousands of day-trippers cross
back and forth.
Hello. How are you, sir?
Very good.
And everyone coming into the U.S.
is checked against the National Crime Database.
That's it, thank you.
- Thanks. - Next.
Today, a young man returning to the U.S.
after going Mexico for a haircut
has been detained.
There's a subject who has a warrant for his arrest.
He was patted down by the officers.
- Officer, thank you. - Yeah
With the pat-down clear,
he's held in an interview room.
And you said you were getting a haircut in Mexico?
You stated you've never been arrested?
Never, never, never ever gotten in trouble with the police?
OK, when's the last time you got a ticket that you know of?
Approximately the time?
More than a year?
Do you know with who it was, what county,
what police officer, that you know of?
No? OK. OK.
The man claims to know nothing about the warrant.
Usually when they come in and we know they have a warrant,
we usually ask them,
"Hey, have you ever been arrested?
Have you ever had trouble with police lately?"
Some of them say, "Yes," others say, "No,"
or they forget.
Public record information on the warrant comes through
to Officer Anaya.
He is wanted for evading arrest.
Evading arrest is a serious crime,
which can result in significant prison time.
Usually that's, either, they're trying to arrest you
and not complying, or just try to run away
or try to hit him.
- Yeah, if you can sit right here sir, please. - OK.
In order to determine that his details match
those on the warrant,
his fingerprints are taken.
If he is the wanted man,
he will be taken to jail.
Nothing's actually showing on the prints.
Nothing came up.
With the man's fingerprints not showing up in the system,
officers need to find another way
to confirm if he really is the wanted man.
Primary be advised.
In Eagle Pass, officers have stopped a driver
returning to the U.S. from Mexico
after a tip-off revealed
she may be a cartel drug courier.
It's throughout the floor on both sides.
Officers begin their search.
Let's take off the center console.
The trapdoor should be in the center console, bro.
There you go.
- It's all loose, right? - Try to take--
When drugs are concealed in hard-to-reach places,
cartels have typically constructed a trapdoor
for access.
No?
Bueno, let's go ahead and take off the seats.
But so far, no such door can be found.
Officers begin the painstaking process
of removing the seats to continue their hunt.
- Whoo! - Here it is.
They put a lot of work into trying to hide it.
It takes a lot of ingenuity to put them in like that,
especially in the floor.
With loads this big, cartels often hide a tracker
to keep tabs on their couriers and product.
- Right there? - It's right there.
Bet it is.
Before officers continue their search,
they need to make sure no one else is listening in.
This is the tracker.
You usually put under the steering wheel
on this area.
Officer Carranco has broken the signal.
The team can now resume the inspection,
knowing the cartel isn't monitoring their conversations.
Hey, there you go!
And it's not long before another trapdoor is found.
It looks like it's gonna be the entire floor
- from both sides. - Both sides.
For the officers, this could be a major seizure.
2 At the Gateway International Bridge,
a young man returning from getting a haircut in Mexico
has been detained.
You stated you've never been arrested.
Despite his denials, he's wanted for evading arrest.
Nothing's actually showing on the prints.
Nothing came up.
But right now, his fingerprints don't match
anyone on file.
The subject is still wanted.
It doesn't mean the warrant is not there.
Sometimes they don't get fingerprinted.
To confirm whether or not he is the wanted man...
Nothing's showing up in his prints.
Yeah, let me verify his social.
Officer Anaya needs to dig deeper into his background.
You can zoom in there.
As well as confirming his social security details,
he reveals he's a semi-professional boxer
with an upcoming fight.
He said he has a fight, pro boxing.
That's his fight.
And this is him right here.
He may be known in the ring,
but Officer Anaya still needs to confirm his ID.
I'm gonna call sector, see if they have a photo
of the subject, just to verify if it's a match.
Yes, I was calling because we have a wanted person here.
I already fingerprinted him, but nothing came up.
Local law enforcement in Brownsville runs his details
through their system.
Thank you so much.
It was a match for the name and the date of birth.
So, it was a match.
The man will be picked up by local police.
So, when are you fighting?
- Saturday. - Saturday, OK.
Despite facing criminal charges,
the man is more worried
that he may miss his fight in two days.
I know as a boxer, you do have to train every day.
He will have to be training for that fight on Saturday.
It's looking unlikely he'll be on the ticket.
He's being taken to the Brownsville precinct,
where he'll finally learn more about his alleged crime.
You are gonna go to the county that's looking for you,
that you're wanted from.
I wouldn't know when he would be seeing the judge,
maybe a couple of days.
I don't know if he's gonna be able to get out
for that fight Saturday.
The man may have been unaware of his warrant,
but since he is the wanted man,
he will now have to face his charge.
If you ever got into trouble, ever been arrested,
ever had any warrants,
and you're planning to cross to the U.S.,
don't be surprised if you get stopped by us.
Primary be advised.
In Eagle Pass...
- Whoo! - There it is!
...officers have found suspected narcotics
hidden in the floor of a vehicle.
Looks like it's gonna be the entire floor
from both sides. - Both sides.
The lone driver is detained
while officers strip down the car
to gain access to the drugs.
Oh my.
Right, I guess now we can try this one, try it out.
And even more packages are found.
It never gets old.
It's just as exciting as the first one.
Love what you do.
Almost every inch of the car's floor has been used
to conceal narcotics.
But it's unclear what type.
We've got to get everything out to the seizure room
so we can test it to see what we're dealing with.
And we'll take it from there.
27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36...
We counted 74 packages in total.
At this point, since we don't know what it is,
we're gonna have to test it
and just verify what kind of drugs they are.
The load is taken to the seizure room
for testing.
Delivery.
All right, moment of truth.
The laser detector can penetrate the layers
of packaging and identify the type of drug.
It came positive for Methamphetamine,
the first packet.
Methamphetamine is a highly addictive drug
that caused an estimated 30,000 deaths in the U.S.
in 2024.
But it's one of the most profitable for cartels
because it can be manufactured cheaply
from easily sourced chemical ingredients.
If I had to take a wild guess on why the narcotics
come from Mexico, I would say price.
Right?
It takes three officers two hours
to examine all the drugs.
Each packet is full of crystals.
And every one tests positive for methamphetamine.
We're gonna take all of the packages and the boxes
to Bridge two, so we can have 'em weighed.
The drugs are taken to the nearby
Camino Real Bridge
to be weighed on a commercial scale.
Every time we have to use this scale,
means we did good.
162 pounds, and if we translate that into kilograms,
it's 73.48 kilos of crystal meth.
Today's bust has taken drugs with a street value of
3.3 million dollars out of the hands of dealers.
We do this job because we care.
We save lives whenever we catch drugs.
Whenever we take it off the streets,
it gives a sense of accomplishment.
Every year, CBP officers apprehend 2.5 million people
attempting to cross illegally from Mexico to the U.S.
A lot of drug trafficking, weapon smuggling,
narcotics, human smuggling.
Many are youngsters whose parents are already
in America illegally.
They pay people smugglers to escort their children safely
across the border, often pretending to be
a close relative.
It happens a lot. It happens more often than you would think.
Today, at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge,
three children heading to Texas with their grandmother
have been stopped after their story raised concerns.
The three girls have American birth certificates,
but no picture IDs.
They're traveling with their supposed grandmother.
So I'm gonna interview all four of them,
and we'll see what their story is,
how they know each other,
that they're not trying to come in under a different name,
and trying to come into the country illegally.
Officer Covarrubias is concerned the girls aren't
really the woman's grandchildren,
and the birth certificates aren't theirs.
Anybody can claim that I'm this person,
this is my birth certificate, let me in,
but at the end of the day,
they have to be able to prove
that that's really who they are.
The grandmother has a visa to visit the U.S.
and says she's taking the girls to a city in Texas
to see their father.
He used to live in Mexico, but moved back to the U.S.
2 The Windsor-Detroit crossing
is the busiest international border in North America.
Good morning, sir. How are you?
Do you have any fruits and vegetables with you today?
16 million vehicles pass through every year.
Nothing to declare?
CBP officers are always on alert
for anything suspicious being smuggled in.
Any fresh fruits, vegetables?
And that includes natural items.
- Well, no fruits or vegetables, just like chips and stuff? - No.
But some are prohibited
because they carry a serious risk
to American agriculture and wildlife.
Finding any insects that can be harmful
to United States' agriculture is as important
as finding drugs in any shipment coming in.
Today at the Ambassador Bridge,
a car returning to the U.S. from Canada
has been sent for inspection.
The driver, who's traveling with his family,
declared that he has no fresh produce.
But since their car is loaded with groceries,
Officer Castillo wants to take a closer look.
We try to see if they bring in anything prohibited.
Yeah, they just said, "No fruits, vegetables, just rice."
All the bags need to be checked.
If any prohibited items are found,
the family could be in line for a hefty fine.
All this stuff that we don't really look at.
They declared rice, so I found the rice.
This looks like it's Basmati rice.
The rice is classified as a dry good,
so it's allowed to be brought in.
But fresh fruits are restricted to only certain ones
grown in Canada.
And, yeah,
I'm seeing that they do have some mangoes.
These don't have a country of origin, but either way,
mangoes, from anywhere, they're prohibited.
So, some fruits and vegetables do carry diseases.
Mangoes are sort of like avocados
because of the pit inside.
You can replant the pit and then you can grow more.
We don't want it in because we can't control it.
Mangoes can harbor fruit flies,
which pose a significant threat to U.S. farmers,
because they can destroy entire crops.
Oranges, we regulate them.
They don't have a country of origin,
so we're gonna be taking them again.
Pears.
These say Argentina.
They didn't declare any of this stuff either.
The man's claim to not be carrying any fresh produce
is already unraveling.
For transporting potentially hazardous goods,
the driver could be facing a serious fine.
At the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge,
a woman traveling with three girls
she claims are her granddaughters
is being questioned.
The woman has presented U.S. birth certificates
for all three girls.
But with no photo ID to prove who they actually are,
Officer Covarrubias needs to be sure
she's not trafficking them.
And who are these young women? Who are they traveling with?
Why are they together? How do they know each other?
We have all these past cases where somebody gets greedy
and they wanna smuggle people in and say,
"Hey, this is my daughter," when it's not their daughter.
And this is her birth certificate,
but it's not them.
Traffickers can be paid thousands of dollars
to get a single child across the border
to be reunited with family.
Officer Covarrubias needs to make sure
these girls are who they say they are.
To prove they are all related,
he needs to see photographs of all of the family together.
But neither the sisters nor their grandmother have any
on their person or on their phones.
- No. - No?
Oh, OK.
With the girls and their alleged grandmother
unable to prove that they are related,
Officer Covarrubias decides to call the girl's mother
to help establish the facts.
2 At the Canadian border,
a family has been caught bringing in undeclared
fresh fruit into the U.S.
Since crossing the border with undeclared agriculture
can have a devastating impact on U.S. crops.
The family could be in line for a penalty.
You had some, like, fresh fruits and vegetables
in your vehicle.
You had some mangoes, some oranges.
You had quite a few fruits.
We technically asked both of you
if you had any fresh fruits and vegetables,
and because you said you didn't have any,
and we found some.
But you do have fruit.
The fruits that you do have, some of them are prohibited.
When you fail to declare it, we're gonna have to give you
a penalty of $300.
$300.
We did ask both of you guys, and you both said, "No".
Well, you did have fruit.
So we're gonna be actually done arguing.
You did cross an international border, OK?
Everything in that car belongs to you.
You're supposed to know what's inside.
The officers did ask if you had it.
Both of you, not once but twice, said, "No", OK?
Now we found the stuff,
so now a civil penalty is gonna be issued.
Do you have enough to cover the $300 today?
Just, yeah, I'm gonna do some paperwork.
I'll come back for you.
We did specifically ask them what they had.
The couple is issued a $300 penalty.
Although this family has never been caught
with undeclared produce before,
next time they're unlikely to make this mistake.
You're coming from one country to the other.
I would think you would know what you pack.
The driver pays the fine, and the family will be allowed
to enter the U.S.
But it's been a costly lesson.
They're all usually pretty upset about paying $300
for some mangoes and oranges,
but, I mean, at the end of the day,
he did make a mistake. He did have to pay for it.
At the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge,
officers suspect three minors could be in the process
of being trafficked into the U.S.
Unable to prove the girls are related
and that this is their grandmother,
Officer Covarrubias has decided to call the girl's mother.
The woman confirms all three are her children,
traveling with their grandmother.
Uh-huh.
If she doesn't find and send a photo of all four,
they'll be sent back to Mexico.
OK, bye.
This is pretty much your last chance, guys.
I mean...
Finally, a photo was sent through,
which shows them all together.
OK, guys, yeah.
Let's go.
Satisfied they are related,
the family is free to travel into Texas.
They were admitted as U.S. citizens.
Really, really comfortable
once we got the photographic evidence.
Just seemed a little odd at the beginning,
where none of them had photos of each other.
It's very strange, but we see strange things here, so...
2 At the southern border,
wait times to cross into the U.S. can be long.
But a small percentage of travelers can enter
more quickly if they are fast pass holders.
This allows them to use the SENTRI Lane,
where lines are significantly reduced.
They can use that dedicated lane.
They can cross to Mexico and come back
in a matter of minutes,
versus the regular traffic,
which can sometimes be like three or four hours long.
But qualifying for this status is a difficult process,
and only those who have gone through rigorous checks
are granted access. - Gracias.
This morning, a car entering from Mexico using
the SENTRI Lane has been sent for inspection.
You're gonna park it over there in the first one
to your right, OK?
Checks reveal the vehicle hasn't been registered
to the driver's fast pass card.
He says he's borrowing his dad's car
while his own is being repaired.
Yeah, but you still have to wait until you get it approved.
It's not just about adding it, but it's for-- it's added,
and they have to wait till they approve it.
You can't cross that vehicle until you get it approved
in the system first.
If he's found with anything illegal in his car,
he'll risk losing both his and his father's SENTRI Pass.
OK, so we have a little package here.
And it's got...
what seems to be...
a joint or a blunt.
We would have to test it
to see if it'll test positive for something,
marijuana, more than likely.
Even if it's small,
it's still not legal to bring into the country.
Marijuana is illegal in Texas,
and crossing the U.S. border with any amount is forbidden.
After putting it in the testing kit,
it did test positive for cannabis.
Unfortunately, it's not enough to do a seizure or a penalty.
It was destroyed in testing.
His SENTRI card, he's supposed to be a Trusted Traveler,
so he's supposed to not have anything that's prohibited.
He's held at a higher standard, in other words.
The young man is let off with a warning,
but both he and his father's fast pass will be revoked.
This particular vehicle doesn't belong to him,
so the owner would be deactivated,
because now they're lending it to somebody else
who was found with narcotics.
We will lift up his SENTRI card,
and he will no longer be able
to travel as a Trusted Traveler.
It could take years before their cards are reinstated.
I think his dad's gonna be very [bleep],
once he finds that out,
that his SENTRI card was revoked.
In the Mexican border town of Nuevo Progreso,
there are over 100 pharmacies in one square mile.
With prices up to 70% cheaper than in the U.S.,
it's become a magnet for medical tourism.
Any medication?
But there are strict controls on how much can be brought back
to the U.S.
And officers are highly trained to spot any irregularities.
We handle hundreds of bottles of medication every day,
so every time we feel it,
if it's different, then we know
that there's something wrong with it.
This afternoon,
Officer Theriault has stopped a female traveler.
She suspects the woman is smuggling pain medication.
This lady had a bottle of Tramadol,
and it just felt a little heavy, and when I opened it,
I noticed that the pills were halfway up the bottle,
instead of typically about a quarter of the way up.
I'm just thinking it was double stuffed.
Double stuffing, or concealing extra pills in one bottle,
is a well-known trick
to get illicit drugs across the border.
The medication is Tramadol,
a controlled substance in the U.S.,
due to its addictive nature.
Travelers can only bring in 50 pills at one time
without a prescription.
The woman has over 100.
Since she didn't declare them, she could be facing
a heavy penalty or even jail time.
Let me talk to my supervisor and see what he wants to do.
Somebody's been told the laws before.
They've had the seizures with us before.
We've taken payment for a penalty for them before.
They already know what the regulation is.
They already know what the laws are,
and she's still trying to circumvent them.
To help determine her punishment,
Officer Peña wants to find out more about
the woman's intentions.
2 In Progreso...
A 61-year-old woman could be facing jail time
after being caught smuggling excessive amounts
of pain medication.
Two years ago, she was fined for the same offense.
You were the one that was charged with it.
What do you use it for?
Why don't you get it in the U.S.?
Well, you can bring it in, but there's only a certain amount.
They only give you one chance.
The call is made to the state prosecutor,
who confirms that they will be pressing charges.
No, but you guys don't care!
You guys don't care about anybody.
A local law enforcement officer arrives
to take the woman into custody.
Unfortunately, the subject is very upset,
obviously, because of the situation.
The woman is handcuffed and led away.
She'll be taken to the local Hidalgo precinct.
We can't be lenient just because
she's having a harder time with this
than other people might be.
You broke the law, you broke the law,
and you already knew what the consequences could be.
It will now be up to state prosecutors
to determine her sentence.