C.B.P. News Release

Border Patrol Agents Seize $2.3 Million in Narcotics throughout New Mexico, West Texas

(Monday, March 29, 2010)

Lordsburg, N.M. – Despite the downward trend in apprehensions in the El Paso Sector, the job of U.S. Border Patrol agents continues to be challenging as evidenced by the foiling of 14 separate attempts to smuggle approximately 2,900 pounds of narcotics into the U.S.

The busy weekend began with Border Patrol agents assigned to the Lordsburg Station making 10 different seizures, the largest being 477 pounds of marijuana. Agents in Lordsburg utilized the latest enforcement technology to watch a group of drug smugglers as they walked north near Rodeo, N.M. After responding to the area, agents found 11 abandoned burlap backpacks full of narcotics, weighing a combined 477 pounds. The total amount of the load is estimated to be valued at more than $382,000. The smugglers who carried the burlap sacks apparently absconded back into Mexico. This seizure was followed by nine other attempts to smuggle a total of 2,270 pounds of marijuana in various locations in New Mexico. The value of those loads is approximately $1,820,000.

Meanwhile, agents from Deming Station had their hands full dealing with suspected smugglers who appeared to have set barbwire “booby trapsâ€