Smugglers Use Migrant Families to Distract Border Agents, Move Drugs Across

El Paso Sector Border Patrol officials say smugglers are using large groups of family unit migrants and unaccompanied minors to distract agents so they can move drugs across the border in other locations.

Camp Bounds Forward Operating Base agents apprehended another large group of migrants who illegally crossed the border in a remote part of New Mexico-Mexico border. The agents apprehended a group of 247 migrants shortly after they crossed the border near Antelope Wells, New Mexico, KFOX14 reported.

Border Patrol Agent Denisse A. Licon told the local Fox affiliate that most of the group were families and unaccompanied minors from Central America.

Officials said that at about the same time the agents engaged with this very large group of migrants, drug smugglers reportedly moved a load of 265 pounds of marijuana across the border west of Antelope Wells.

To complicate processing, agents reported that fifteen migrant families requested medical attention shortly after being apprehended.

Antelope Wells is the same area where a young Guatemalan girl, Jakelin Caal, and her father crossed the border. The young girl became ill hours later and died after being taken to an El Paso hospital.

Processing these large groups of migrants from the remote forward operating base to the Lordsburg Border Patrol station is a time-consuming task. The station is a 94-mile drive from the operating base and can be up to a four-hour round trip for the transport bus.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the pressure on Border Patrol agents due to the unsecured border is pushing the system “to a breaking point.”

Now it appears that drug smugglers are attempting to take advantage of the overwhelming nature of...

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