09 Oct Nearly $800K in Alleged Cocaine Found in Pickup at Hidalgo Bridge

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly $800,000 worth of alleged cocaine at the Hidalgo International Bridge on Sept. 27, CBP said in a news release Tuesday.

Officers stopped a black Chevrolet pickup entering from Reynosa and sent it to secondary inspection. Nonintrusive inspection equipment flagged anomalies inside the truck, and a K-9 team alerted to the odor of narcotics.

A physical search turned up 22 packages of alleged cocaine hidden in the vehicle. They weighed 59.78 pounds, or about 27 kilograms, and CBP valued them at $798,000.

CBP seized the drugs and the truck, and Homeland Security Investigations special agents opened a criminal investigation. The release didn’t say whether anyone was arrested.

Port Director Carlos Rodriguez, who oversees the Hidalgo, Pharr and Anzalduas ports of entry, said officers will keep using “all available tools and technology” to stop smuggling attempts.

It’s far from the first big seizure at the bridge, where drugs are frequently seized from everyday vehicles. A Chrysler Pacifica stopped May 1 was carrying about 45 pounds of suspected cocaine, valued at more than $600,000, CBP reported. In May 2025, a Nissan Rogue yielded another 46 pounds. In August 2024, officers found nearly 102 pounds of methamphetamine, valued at more than $910,000, in another vehicle, and in May 2023, they pulled 132 pounds of cocaine, valued at about $1.7 million, from a commercial bus arriving from Mexico. In 2021, 114 pounds of meth turned up hidden in an SUV’s tires.