Photo: ALLISON DINNER / AFP / Getty Images
A migrant smuggling operation was thwarted with the aid of X-ray technology at a Texas Border Patrol checkpoint earlier this month, a day after agents at the same facility in interdicted a truck carrying methamphetamine liquid disguised as bleach, informed the federal authorities.
The two discoveries were made by Border Patrol agents at the Falfurrias checkpoint in Texas, to about 53 minutes north of the international border between the United States and Mexico.
First, on December 8, agents stopped a commercial truck from 18 wheels and found more than 3, pounds of methamphetamine inside containers disguised as everyday household products s, according to the US Border Patrol
The content within 1,100 bottles tested positive for liquid methamphetamine. Has an estimated street value of more than $800,12 Dollars.
The raid is the third-largest methamphetamine seizure in Border Patrol history, said the agency in a press release.
The next day, X-rays were taken of a van carrying a camping trailer and they found 15 illegal immigrants hiding inside .
On December 9, agents from the same Texas facility found four migrants tucked into a metal compartment of a road paver.
As the construction team passed the Falfurrias checkpoint, the agents noticed a license plate metal with loose screws and opened it, finding the four people with no escape route and limited air.
The drivers and migrants in both cases were detained by Border Patrol agents.
Smugglers often resort to dangerous and desperate measures to transport drugs and people into the country.
In June, 53 migrants died after becoming trapped inside a tractor-trailer in sweltering conditions without air or water for hours before being discovered in San Antonio, Texas. Their deaths are the deadliest known smuggling event in United States history.
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