CBP seizes $30.4M in meth hidden in salt load at Laredo

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers pulled nearly $30.4 million in suspected methamphetamine out of a trailer manifested as salt at Laredo's World Trade Bridge on October 12 — and then released both the driver and the tractor-trailer.

The seizure totaled 3,395.91 pounds, packed into 76 bags inside a 2020 International LT625 tractor-trailer crossing from Mexico. That weight is the equivalent of roughly 1.5 tonnes of narcotics moving under an ordinary bulk-commodity manifest through the busiest commercial land port in the United States. Authorities have referred the case to Homeland Security Investigations.

CBP has not said whether the driver or the trucking company knew the drugs were on board. Neither agency answered that question when asked directly. What is on the record is the outcome: no arrest announced, equipment released, investigation open.

How did officers find the load?

A CBP officer selected the commercial vehicle for additional examination during the crossing. A secondary inspection using nonintrusive imaging technology — the scanner-based screening that lets officers compare a trailer's contents against its manifest without unloading it — flagged the discrepancy. The 76 bags followed.

The technique is not new, and neither is the concealment pattern. In September, federal investigators uncovered more than 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside a commercial cabbage shipment in South Texas. Bulk agricultural and industrial cargoes — produce, salt — offer dense cover for co-mingled contraband, and imaging is the primary filter against it at the land border.

What happened to the driver and the carrier?

This is where the record thins out. FreightWaves asked CBP and HSI why the driver and equipment were released, and requested the carrier's identity and country of registration, the importer of record and the shipment's destination. Both agencies declined, citing the ongoing investigation.

HSI offered a statement: "HSI continues to investigate the matter and pursue all available leads to identify those responsible for bringing this significant quantity of methamphetamine into the United States and prevent it from reaching communities across South Texas."

Note what that sentence does not say. It promises pursuit of "those responsible" but does not say whether the driver is a subject, a witness or cleared. Federal investigators have previously charged rings that used unsuspecting truckers to haul cocaine from California to Florida — 25 people were charged in that case — so complicity cannot be assumed from a seizure alone. The release of the driver cuts both ways: it may signal investigators view the hauler as unknowing, or simply that the case is not yet charged.

Why does Laredo keep appearing in these cases?

Volume. Laredo handled 2.95 million inbound truck crossings from Mexico in 2025, according to federal transportation data — the largest commercial truck flow of any U.S. land port. Sheer throughput means the port processes more manifests, more bulk loads and, inevitably, more concealment attempts than any competitor crossing. A $30.4 million seizure is a rounding error against nearly 3 million annual crossings, which is precisely the arithmetic smugglers rely on.

For carriers, the exposure is asymmetric. A driver released today can still face months of uncertainty if the investigation widens, and a small fleet whose trailer appears in a federal case carries that record into every subsequent broker vetting. For shippers of legitimate bulk commodities — salt, cabbage, peppers — each high-profile seizure raises the odds their trucks get pulled for secondary inspection, adding hours at the border.

What comes next?

The investigation sits with HSI, which says it is pursuing all available leads. Whether charges follow against the driver, the carrier or parties north of the border will test whether this was a unwitting haul or a routed operation — and CBP's imaging program will keep scanning the roughly 8,000 trucks a day that cross at Laredo.