Border Report Live: US, Mexico put pressure on drug cartels

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) -- A U.S. spy plane was spotted off the coast of Sinaloa.

Green Berets are bound for Campeche to instruct Mexican marines how to conduct special operations against an enemy.

Mexican soldiers in Juarez have begun checking cars headed to the United States.

And Mexico's National Guard has been poking the ground looking for more cross-border tunnels under the Rio Grande.

The U.S. and Mexico appear to be putting pressure on drug cartels south of the border.

In this week's episode of Border Report Live, host Daniel Marin and Border Report correspondents Julian Resendiz and Sandra Sanchez examine the stepped-up enforcement, especially as the clock is ticking on a 30-day reprieve on tariffs that the Trump administration gave Mexico to slow down not just the flow of migrants headed to the U.S. border, but also the river of fentanyl flooding American communities.

It's just training

A Mexican Senate commission this week approved the entry of U.S. Green Berets into the country.

Members of the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), will land in the Mexican Gulf Coast state of Campeche as early as this weekend.

They will be fully armed as part of a mission to train the Mexican Navy’s Infantería de Marina (marine infantry) in conventional and non-conventional types of combat.

Mexican marines parade in front of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on the day of a military parade for the 214th anniversary of Independence Day at the Zocalo Square in Mexico City on September 16, 2024. (Photo by CARL DE SOUZA / AFP) (Photo by CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images)

Mexican lawmakers said the training would take place from Feb. 17 through March 30 at the Luis Carpizo Training Facility.

Message from the pope

Sister Norma Pimentel recently returned from the Vatican, where she met with Pope Francis.

Pimentel, the executive director of Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley, said he encouraged her and others in her group to help the unfortunate.

Upon returning, Pimentel told Border Report she was heartened by a recent letter to U.S bishops from Pope Francis condemning the deportation of immigrants, saying “major crisis that is taking place in the United States.”

“The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” the pope wrote.

Francis did say the country has a right “to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.”

More troops heading to the border

About 300 more Texas National Guard troops are headed to the South Texas border town of Laredo to help the Border Patrol.

Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jesse Muñoz told the Laredo Morning Times that over 300 Texas National Guard soldiers will arrive in the Laredo Sector within a month to enhance border security.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott greets National Guard members ahead of the press conference he and fellow governors organized along the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border to discuss Operation Lone Star and border concerns on Sunday, February 4, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

The new troops will be allowed to perform immigration officer duties under the supervision of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. This is under a new memorandum of understanding between CBP and the Texas National Guard that allows some in-state active-duty soldiers the authority to question immigration status under Title 8.

Unusual drug seizures

Since President Trump took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the South Texas border are reporting confiscating unusually large quantities of drugs in single-enforcement events. They include mostly cocaine and methamphetamine.

Since Jan. 20, CBP reported over 10 large-scale seizures of illegal drugs totaling hundreds of pounds and worth millions of dollars on the streets including:

• Jan. 24: $8.1 million in methamphetamine seized from a Volvo at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo. The car had been hauling industrial machinery.
• Jan. 24: $1.2 million or 91 pounds of cocaine found in a car at the Brownsville International Bridge.
• Jan. 24: Almost 16 pounds of cocaine worth $211,000 was confiscated from a car entering the Gateway International Bridge from Matamoros, Mexico, into Brownsville, Texas.
• Jan. 31: $1.6 million in one tractor-trailer crossing from Ciudad Manuel Alemán, Mexico, into Roma, Texas, at the Roma International Bridge. The truck was hauling soft drinks but officers found 120 pounds of cocaine in 50 packages.
• Feb. 4: $19.8 million in methamphetamine and $144,500 in heroin as found concealed in a shipment of cucumbers and jalapenos officers confiscated at the Pharr International Bridge. The drugs included 8,206 packages of meth weighing over 2,00 pounds, and 26 packages of heroin weighing 7.5 pounds that were inside a tractor trailer selected for non-intrusive inspection, CBP says.
• Feb. 6: $1.4 million in cocaine found inside a tanker truck trying to cross the Camino Real International Bridge (Bridge II) in Eagle Pass, Texas. CBP says they confiscated 108 pounds of the drug.
• Feb. 7: $1 million in cocaine totaling 82 pounds found hidden in a car at the Pharr International Bridge. That’s 35 packages of drugs.
• Feb. 7: 25 pounds of cocaine found in one vehicle at the Anzalduas International Bridge
• Feb. 7: Almost $500,000 in cocaine was seized from one SUV at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge in Laredo, totaling 37 pounds of drugs.
• Feb. 8: 74 pounds of cocaine in an SUV at the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge.