Border Patrol Arrests Teen Rideshare Passenger Smuggling Nearly $165,000 Worth of Fentanyl Across Border

El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a woman attempting to smuggle nearly $165,000 worth of fentanyl through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in a rideshare vehicle on Saturday morning.

At around 9:30 a.m., the woman and her driver approached the U.S. Border Patrol’s Highway 86 immigration checkpoint in a red sedan.

A K-9 unit alerted at the vehicle’s trunk, which led to the car being brought to another area for a closer inspection.

“In the secondary inspection area, the driver said he was employed as a rideshare driver and that he was providing a transportation service for the 18-year-old woman U.S. citizen passenger,” Border Patrol said in a press release about the arrest. “As the driver and passenger exited the vehicle, the K-9 unit again alerted to the trunk.”

The press release continued, “During a subsequent examination of the trunk area, Border Patrol agents discovered 11 clear plastic bags each containing blue pills. The pills tested positive for fentanyl. Each of the plastic bags were discovered inside of larger travel bags suspected to belong to the passenger.”

The total weight of the fentanyl was 14.54 pounds., with an estimated street value of $164,750.

As little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl can kill a person, depending on their body size.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, “Rates of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, which includes fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, increased over 22% from 2020 to 2021. The rate of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids in 2021 was nearly 22 times the rate in 2013. Nearly 71,000 drug overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids other than methadone in 2021. The latest provisional drug overdose death counts suggest overdose deaths accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The young woman and the fentanyl were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.