Meth floods across U.S.-Mexico border amid coronavirus pandemic
Officers say meth seizures have nearly doubled this year compared to 2019. High demand in the U.S. and closed borders have increased the prevalence and price tag. Officers say criminals are getting more creative in the ways they smuggle drugs across and fear the problem will only get worse.
Six members of a Mexican cartel smuggled over 1,100 pounds of crystal meth into Miami through Texas, hiding some of the drug inside concrete with the rest dissolved in buckets of paint, court documents reveal.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the southern district of Florida announced Thursday that alleged United Cartel leader Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan-Rodriguez — also known as "Fruto" — was arrested in Guatemala on request from the U.S. along with Alfonso Rustrian as a co-conspirator.
Fruto's son, Adalberto Fructose Comparan-Bedolla, as well as three other associates — Carlos Basauri-Coto, Silviano Gonzalez-Aguilar and Salvador Valdez — were also arrested in Miami. The group is being charged in two separate complaints for smuggling 1,100 pounds of crystal methamphetamine into Miami.
What will blow your mind is how they did it.
The group made the meth "undetectable" by concealing it "inside different materials," according to court documents.
First, a truck arrived in the Magic City on March 20 carrying "concrete tiles filled with methamphetamine," which Comparan-Bedolla allegedly broke open to retrieve "200 kilograms" (about 441 pounds) worth of the drug.
The rest of the drugs got into Miami on March 26, according to the court documents — but this time it came "dissolved within five-gallon buckets of house paint."
It is alleged that Comparan-Bedolla, Gonzalez-Aguilar and Valdez worked meticulously for days at a warehouse pulling pure crystal meth from the paint. Fortunately, the drugs were seized by law enforcement before they could get out on the street.
CBP SEES 'ALARMING UPTICK' IN FENTANYL SEIZURES AT SOUTHERN BORDER
The drug seizure comes as the crisis at the southern border continues to grow and drugs flood into America.
Paint and concrete aren't the only innovative methods drug-runners are using to smuggle drugs across the border.
A Border Patrol canine on Monday sniffed out packages of fentanyl pills that had been hidden inside burritos at an immigration checkpoint in Arizona.
The handler referred the male driver of the vehicle to the checkpoint’s secondary inspection where the canine alerted to a black backpack inside the vehicle.
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Agents searched the backpack and discovered several small packages with fentanyl pills that had been stuffed inside breakfast burritos, Customs and Border Protection said. They also found two cellphones and $6,200.
The fentanyl packages had a combined weight of just over five pounds with an approximate street value of $60,000, according to the agency.
Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed reporting
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