Customs and Border Protection

US, EU hit Russia with new sanctions as Gaza plans advance and Trump eyes Xi talks. Here’s what’s making headlines this Thursday evening.

Here’s your SOFREP Daily News Brief: Key defense and global affairs insights to keep you in the know on Thursday, January 23.

Here’s your SOFREP Daily News Brief: Key defense and global affairs insights to keep you in the know on Tuesday, January 21.

A local construction company in Galveston, Texas is preparing to start construction on a portion of the border wall at the beginning of next month. According to a press release from the Department of Defense (D0D), SLS Company (SLSCO) won a DoD contract valued at $166,835,700 in December for the design and construction of the […]

U.S. service members currently deployed to the southern border can expect to stay there for another nine months. Although originally the deployment to the area was slated to conclude later this month, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced on Monday evening that the current operation would extend until September 30, 2019. The DoD did not […]

The influx of commercially available drone technology has introduced a slew of challenges for American military and law enforcement officials.  Iranian drones have interrupted flight operations aboard U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, Frankenstein-like drones fielded by the Islamic State have carried out suicide missions or dropped explosives on coalition fighters, and now, drones […]

Damaso Lopez Serrano, the son of one of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s main henchmen and a competitor for control of the Sinaloa cartel, crossed the border and turned himself into US authorities on Wednesday. Lopez Serrano reportedly crossed from Mexicali in Mexico’s Baja California state to Calexico in California, where he surrendered to the Customs and […]

When you’re entering the United States, whether at an airport or a border crossing, federal agents have broad authority to search citizens and visitors alike. And that can include flipping through your phone, computer, and any other electronic devices you have with you. As US Customs and Border Protection outlines in a tearsheet it provides to […]

Agents from the US Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations unit detected a vessel laden with 2,000 pounds of cocaine in the Caribbean early this year, before moving in to seize the ship, four suspects aboard it, and its cargo, which had an estimated value of $30 million. On January 2, AMO agents on […]

Each year, billions of dollars in illegal narcotics circle the globe, feeding the demand of millions of users. At every step, authorities try to intercept the drugs and apprehend their purveyors. In response, traffickers have developed a variety of inventive ways to obscure their illicit goods. On the US-Mexico border, a preferred method among traffickers seems […]

US Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations agents seized 328 pounds of cocaine from a vessel near Puerto Rico on November 15, in what is the latest sign that traffickers may be returning to once popular Caribbean smuggling routes. A CBP DHC-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft picked up a small, wooden “yola” vessel traveling eastward […]

Government informants revealed to authorities that, in one case, a Gulf Cartel commander known as El Puma ordered that rifles and vests which had been used in a kidnapping and murder be placed in a box and buried in a property belonging to the Beltran family. The Beltran group had De La Cruz get rid of the weapons, which he did by taking them to a local gun store to be sold off.