CBP Officers, Agriculture Specialists in South Texas Seize Large Amounts of Narcotics, Currency, Fake Documents, Prohibited Items in FY 2011

SOUTH TEXAS – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and agriculture specialists at eight South Texas ports of entry seized a significant amount of narcotics, currency, false documents, and uncovered numerous immigration and agricultural violations during fiscal year 2011. Fiscal Year 2011 began October 1, 2010 and ended Sept. 30, 2011.

CBP officers at eight ports of entry extending from Brownsville to Del Rio in FY 2011 seized 157,119 pounds of narcotics that carried an estimated street value of nearly $404 million. Specifically they seized nearly 150,000 pounds of marijuana, 5,465 pounds of cocaine, 1,017 pounds of methamphetamine, up 34 percent over FY 10, nearly 636 pounds of heroin, up 16 percent over FY 10, $13.3 million in undeclared currency, 258 firearms and 51,291 rounds of ammunition. Weapons seizures alone soared 132 percent over FY 10 totals. They made those interceptions while processing 2.5 million commercial trucks, 19.3 million privately-owned vehicles, 49.8 million passengers and pedestrians and 73,036 commercial buses at the ports over the same period.

South Texas CBP officers in FY 2011 determined that a total of 25,901 non-U.S. citizens were inadmissible to the U.S. due to violations of immigration law. CBP officers and agriculture specialists in FY 2011 intercepted a total of 13,643 pests.  They also made 29,719 interceptions of quarantined animal materials. CBP in South Texas also tallied 110,727 interceptions of quarantined plant materials in FY 2011.

“I am proud of the hard work put forth by our frontline CBP officers, import specialists and agriculture specialists in FY 2011, particularly the significant percentage increases in firearms and hard narcotics seizures including methamphetamine and heroin,” said Gene Garza, Director, Field Operations, Laredo Field Office.

“More than doubling the number of weapons seized over the previous fiscal year shows the true force multiplier effect of having Border Patrol agents and state and local officers working side by side with our CBP officers in the outbound environment.”