A Border Patrol K-9 helped agents assigned to a California border station intercept over $1 million in cocaine from being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Friday.
On Monday, July 15, a white SUV containing two U.S. citizens approached the Indio, Calif. immigration checkpoint.
During a primary inspection of the SUV, the Border Patrol K-9 team alerted agents to the presence of concealed people or drugs in the vehicle.
A subsequent search resulted in the discovery of 34 packages wrapped in brown cellophane concealed in a hidden compartment in the ceiling of the SUV.
The contents of the packages, contained 92 pounds of white powder that tested positive for cocaine.
CBP estimated the value of the seized cocaine at more than $1.04 million.
“It’s way too hot for this type of ‘snow’ in the El Centro Sector,” El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino said Friday. “Indio Station agents melted down plans to bring this poison to drug users in America, and I applaud those agents for bringing the fight to bad people and bad things here in the Premier Sector.”
The driver of the SUV, the vehicle, and the drugs were turned over to Homeland Security Investigation’s (HSI) Imperial Valley Border Enforcement Security Task Force, the HSI law enforcement collective that targets Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO).
According to CBP data, Border Patrol agents have seized over 22,000 pounds of cocaine, and 14,500 pounds of fentanyl at the U.S.-Mexico border in Fiscal Year 2024 to date.
