Page Nav

HIDE

Gradient Skin

Gradient_Skin

Breaking News

latest

More US citizens apprehended for moving drugs over border

undated photo provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows seized drug bundles containing 132 pounds of methamphetamine on dis...

More US citizens apprehended for moving drugs over border
More US citizens apprehended for moving drugs over border
undated photo provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows seized drug bundles containing 132 pounds of methamphetamine on display from Feb. 25, 2021, at the Laredo port of entry. PHOTO: AP

An increasing number of American citizens have been apprehended as they have tried to smuggle illegal drugs into the U.S. since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an uptick that’s come amid travel restrictions at the border with Mexico.

For more than a year, the closure of the southern border to nonessential traffic has sharply limited the number of foreign citizens entering the U.S. by land. The rules have been extended until at least June 21, but Mexican authorities have allowed most U.S. citizens to walk or drive south across the border with relative ease.

ALSO READ: NNPC to acquire equity in 6 private refineries — Official

Law enforcement officials and drug trafficking experts say the border rules — put in place in April 2020 to curb the spread of the coronavirus — and their lopsided enforcement are driving the rise in U.S. citizens involved in borderland drug busts. Mexican traffickers, however, have long recruited Americans for the job.

U.S. citizens were apprehended nearly seven times more often than Mexican citizens between October 2020 and March 31 for trying to smuggle drugs in vehicles, U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows. In the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years, Americans were caught roughly twice as often as Mexicans.

[Associated Press]

Vanguard News Nigeria

The post More US citizens apprehended for moving drugs over border appeared first on Vanguard News.



No comments