ALAMOGORDO, N.M. – Wednesday night, U.S. Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint north of El Paso, seized narcotics worth more than $800,000 from a single vehicle.
While conducting a routine immigration inspection, Border Patrol Agents stopped a gray Saturn Vue for further investigation. Agents interviewed the driver, a United States citizen. After the driver consented to a vehicle search, a U.S. Border Patrol canine performed a non-intrusive inspection of the vehicle and alerted, indicating the possible presence of narcotics. A secondary search using X-Ray technology found anomalies in the rear quarter panels of the vehicle.
Border Patrol agents then conducted a thorough search of the vehicle and found 17 bundles wrapped in clear cellophane and tin foil - a type of concealment method often used by narcotics smugglers. The bundles contained over 25 pounds of methamphetamine. The street value of the meth is estimated at more than $850,000. The vehicle was seized by the United States Border Patrol; the driver and narcotics were turned over to DEA.
Checkpoints located outside the El Paso area serve as a secondary line of defense. Drug seizures like this one keep these dangerous drugs from polluting communities in the interior of our nation.
It is important to note that an arrest should not be considered evidence of guilt, and subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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