[Washington Examiner] LAS CRUCES, New Mexico ‐ Border Patrol highway checkpoints in the southern New Mexico region that normally seize seven figures of worth of drugs annually have not seized a dollar in nearly four months after being shuttered in late March, allowing drugs to flood into the country. Meantime, with the added supply, prices for illicit drugs are dropping precipitously.
Those seven checkpoints have sat unattended after Border Patrol closed them to move all personnel to the border to assist with apprehending, processing, and caring for the high number of migrant families arriving.
Seven elected officials and law enforcement officials in Doña Ana and Otero counties told the Washington Examiner in interviews they worry that with no one to seize the millions of dollars of illegal substances normally confiscated while being transported north to cities such as Denver and Oklahoma City.
Normally, vehicles attempting to traverse those counties would have to pass a sniff test by a K-9 officer, and the legal status of the occupants would be checked. But since the checkpoints closed on March 25, drug runners can move product up and down the open roads.
"The foot traffic over there is unbelievable ‐ coming through with backpacks and all that stuff," Sheriff David Black of Otero County said about Hidalgo and Doña Ana counties. "Here, we have El Paso. Not a lot of foot traffic coming through all sort of vehicles ... there’s a small part of Texas that’s between the Mexico and our border ... Most of [the drugs are] concealed in vehicles, in tires, gas tanks, stuff like that."
The two checkpoints in his county caught $12.7 million worth of drugs in 2018. |