Border officers make ‘huge’ liquid meth and gun ammo busts in El Paso

EL PASO, Texas -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers said they made a pair of "huge" seizures Wednesday night involving liquid meth and a cache of gun ammunition at the El Paso ports of entry.

The meth seizure happened at the Ysleta port cargo facility, where 32 bottles of it in liquid form - weighing over 1,500 pounds - were found inside the trailer of a big-rig coming from Mexico.

"This is a huge seizure and more than triples the 425 pounds of methamphetamine seized by CBP officers working El Paso area ports for all of fiscal year 2019," said Hector Mancha, CBP's operations chief for the El Paso sector.

Based on a Drug Enforcement Administration calculation used in an unrelated case in Georgia, the amount of liquid meth seized in El Paso may have a street value of roughly $100 million.

The other big seizure of the night occurred on the Bridge of the Americas, where officers discovered 8,000 rounds of ammo being transported south into Mexico.

Two women had 16 boxes containing the ammunition hidden under a blanket on the rear seat and floor of their car, officials said.

Mancha noted that while CBP is often associated with stopping illegal items from coming into the U.S., the agency also works to "stop the illicit flow of money, weapons and ammunition going south.”