Border Patrol Seizes 158 Tons Of Illegal Drugs In 2011

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Southern California announced on Monday they seized more than 158 tons of illegal drugs and stopped more than 100,000 attempts to enter the country illegally during 2011.

The drugs — marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine — were confiscated at the ports of entry in Mexicali and San Diego and inspection stations, such as the one on Highway 86 in El Centro.

According to KESQ.com’s archive of drug-related seizures in El Centro, most of them were discovered in cars and trucks by drug-sniffing dogs. Agents waived the vehicles to a secondary inspection area, where high-tech equipment scanned them and found drugs often hidden underneath cars’ exteriors.

Agents seized nearly 200,000 pounds of illegal drugs in 2011, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year, officials said.

The biggest increase came in the amount of cocaine. Nearly 14,000 pounds of the drug were confiscated throughout the region, nearly double the amount seized last year.

Approximately 10,000 pounds of marijuana and 41 pounds of heroin were detected at the El Centro inspection station.

Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Calhoon said the future of drug seizures will have to rely on all of the Southern California offices working together.

“As we face emerging threats, such as the ultralight aircraft we are increasingly spotting during attempts to smuggle narcotics into the United States, we will leverage those partnerships to detect these threats, deter illegal activity, and ultimately dismantle the illegal operations,” he said.

Calhoon said the El Centro Air Branch contributed more than 2,500 hours of flight time securing U.S. borders in 2011.

During that time, some of the 1,260 agents patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border performed eight rescue missions saving 28 people, fought off 124 assaults against them and responded to several deaths in their jurisdiction.

But stopping the drugs and illegal immigrants isn’t the agents’ only responsibility, officials said.

The Director of Field Operations for the U.S. Border Patrol, Chris Maston, said agents also focus on ways to speed up legitimate travel and trade into the United States.

“These numbers tell the story of the impressive job that our officers, agents, and others in San Diego (region) accomplish every day,” he said.