Border agents apprehended a 16-year-old boy who used a remote-controlled car to transport methamphetamine across the border.
Credit: @naijnews / Twitter
On Nov. 17, at about 12:30 a.m., agents noticed a person with two duffel bags. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that agents followed the individual and discovered that he was a teenager and was also in possession of meth and a remote-controlled car. But how much can a toy car carry anyway? It is tiny, after all.
Agents reportedly detained 50 packages of methamphetamine or about 55.84 pounds of meth that has an estimated street value of $106,096.
Credit: @kamrlocal4news / Twitter
It wasn’t that long ago that tunnels were discovered at the U.S.-Mexico border and were believed to be used for drug trafficking into the U.S. The arrest by CBP shows the extent and complexity of which drugs are getting across the U.S.-Mexico border. The teenager was able to fit the drug on the remote control car because he had altered the car by removing the top. The drugs fit on the undercarriage of the car to be transported in and out of the U.S. and Mexico on what looks more like a remote control skateboard.
It’s hard to think that this teenage boy was acting alone on either side of the border. His identity has not been revealed since he is underage.
Credit: @hmuller61 / Twitter
The teen was arrested in San Diego, so someone was clearly on one side bringing the meth to the toy car while the boy waited on the other side. But the report doesn’t specify if the kid was transporting the meth to Mexico or bringing meth into the U.S.
San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Douglas Harrison stated, “I am extremely proud of the agents’ heightened vigilance and hard work in stopping this unusual smuggling scheme.”
People on social media gave the kid props for using his clever skills of using a remote-controlled car.
Others chastised the kid for not thinking things through all the way. “Well, he got caught so he’s not that smart.” Others pointed out the inventive way this kid beat the so-called wall system that President Donald Trump wants to implement, “But isn’t the wall stopping all the drugs coming in!!”
This is not the first time border agents have detained people of transporting drugs through inventive means.
Credit: @GinaAHarkins / Twitter
In 2017, another San Diego male, this time a 25-year-old used a drone to transport several pounds of methamphetamine across the border. According to a press release by CBP Public Affairs, “An agent on an all-terrain vehicle spotted a male suspect at about 11:40 p.m. near the border at Servano Avenue and Valentino Street. The agent approached the man and discovered that he possessed a large open bag that had multiple plastic-wrapped packages containing methamphetamine. After the agent arrested the man, a search of the immediate area was conducted, leading to the discovery of a drone that was concealed under a bush. The drone was approximately two feet in height.”
In that drug bust, the amount the smuggler was caught with 13.44 pounds, which has an estimated street value of $46,000. So that’s only a fraction of what the teen boy had obtained.
While some may speculate this issue is proof that the United States needs a stronger border, people will find ways to transport drugs. Until both the U.S. and the Mexico governments address that their drug problem is everyone’s problem none of these issues will ever end.
On March 20th, U.S. Border Patrol agents found a 9-year-old migrant girl unresponsive along with her mother and sibling on an island in the Rio Grande.
U.S. Border Patrol agents attempted to resuscitate the family. The agents were able to revive the mother and her younger, 3-year-old child. The Border Patrol agents transferred the 9-year-old migrant girl to emergency medics in emergency medics in Eagle Pass, Texas, but she remained unresponsive.
In the end, the 9-year-old migrant girl died–the cause of death being drowning.
A 9-year-old migrant girl from Mexico drowned, apparently after trying to cross the Rio Grande into the United States with her mother and younger brother, U.S. officials said. https://t.co/aB1wJGQqLI
The mother of the two children was Guatemalan while the two children were born in Mexico.
The death of the 9-year-old migrant girl is notable because this is the first migrant child death recorded in this current migration surge. And experts worry that it won’t be the last.
And while this is the first child death, it is not the only migrant who has died trying to make it across the border. On Wednesday, a Cuban man drowned while trying to swim across the border between Tijuana and San Diego. He was the second migrant to drown in just a two-week period.
Why is this happening?
“We analyzed monthly CBP data from 2012 to now and found no crisis or surge that can be attributed to Biden administration policies.” https://t.co/hMKH76Zdj9
According to some reports, the reason so many migrants are heading towards the U.S. right now is “because President Trump is gone”. They believe they have a better chance of claiming asylum in the U.S.
Another factor to take into consideration is that a large number of these migrants are unaccompanied minors. According to migrant services volunteer Ruben Garcia, Title 42 is actually having the opposite effect of its intent. President Trump enacted Title 42 to prevent immigration during COVID-19 for “safety reasons”.
“Families that have been expelled multiple times that are traveling with children,” Garcia told PBS News Hour. “Some of them are making the decision to send their children in by themselves, because they have families someplace in the U.S., and they know their children will be released to them.”
Is there a “border crisis”?
The Biden administration for the first time has allowed journalists inside its main border detention facility for migrant children. A tour revealed a severely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,100 people were being housed. https://t.co/kTyfU1JYGB
That depends on who you ask. According to some experts, the numbers of migrants heading to the U.S./Mexico border aren’t out-of-the-ordinary considering the time of year and the fact that COVID-19 made traveling last year virtually impossible.
According to Tom Wong of the University of California at San Diego’s U.S. Immigration Policy Center, there is no “border crisis”. “This year looks like the usual seasonal increase, plus migrants who would have come last year but could not,” Wong says.
As the Washington Post explained: “What we’re seeing right now is a predictable seasonal shift. When the numbers drop again in June and July, policymakers may be tempted to claim that their deterrence policies succeeded.”
What is the Biden Administration planning on doing about it?
Trump sought to hide the asylum issue south of the border. Biden is paying a price for bringing it back into view. https://t.co/9epzrpreIt
As of now, it is pretty evident that the Biden Administration has not been handling this migrant surge well, despite ample warning from experts. As of now, President Biden has put Vice President Harris in charge of handling the issues at the border.
As of now, the game plan is still very vague. But in the past, the Biden Administration has stated that they plan to fix the migrant surge at the source. That means providing more aid to Central America in order to prevent further corruption of elected officials.
They also want to put in place a plan that processes children and minors as refugees in their own countries before they travel to the U.S. The government had not tested these plans and they may take years to implement. Here’s to hoping that these changes will prevent a case like the death of the 9-year-old migrant girl.
Even as governments and customs officials increase their capacity and improve their tools to catch and seize illegal shipments, cartels are continuing to innovate when it comes to getting their shipments from Point A to Point B.
However, this time their idea to coat corn flakes in cocaine didn’t get past inspectors at an Ohio airport. The rather ingenious attempt at hiding their cocaine-laced cereal couldn’t get past a drug sniffing dog, however.
Border officers in Cincinnati reported finding 44 pounds of cocaine cornflakes.
Shipment of cornflakes coated in COCAINE is intercepted in Ohio on its way from South America to Hong Kong https://t.co/dOabjqG5Nv
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Cincinnati have reported seizing a shipment of corn flakes that they say is no ordinary package of cereal. According to officials, the 44 pounds of corn flakes are actually coated in cocaine instead of sugar.
While working on incoming freight from Peru, a CPD narcotic detector dog named Bico flagged the cereal shipment going to a private residence in Hong Kong. Upon further inspection, officers found and tested white powder on the cereal that was positive for cocaine.
“The men and women at the Port of Cincinnati are committed to stopping the flow of dangerous drugs, and they continue to use their training, intuition, and strategic skills to prevent these kinds of illegitimate shipments from reaching the public,” Cincinnati Port Director Richard Gillespie said.
On a typical day in fiscal year 2020, CBP said it seized 3,677 pounds of drugs at ports of entry across the nation.
Drug traffickers have long used creative methods to try to ship cocaine.
Over the weekend, CBP officers at Miami International Airport uncovered more than a pound of cocaine hidden in a pair of sandals. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, a drug balloon, or pellet, weighing 1.3 pounds of cocaine was found in the sandals last week.
The Jamaican traveler who was stopped also admitted to swallowing cocaine and was taken to a local hospital for an X-ray.
And last July, for example, police in Italy discovered cocaine stuffed inside individually hollowed-out coffee beans, after opening a parcel addressed to a fictional Mafia boss from a Hollywood movie.
