Human and drug smuggling interdictions continue in California

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(The Center Square) – Border security efforts to interdict human and drug smuggling in California continues in what has historically been one of the busiest trafficking corridors of the U.S. 

Although record high illegal entries during the Biden administration have dropped by roughly 95% under the Trump administration, massive amounts of illicit drugs are being seized and illegal entries are still being attempted at sea. 

In one week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations crews working with U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol, interdicted three smuggling vessels off the coast of Southern California. Combined, they apprehended 60 foreign nationals, primarily from Mexico, including those with known criminal histories and active warrants. 

Their criminal histories include driving under the influence, felony hit-and-run, making false police reports, drug possession; active warrants include resisting arrest, trespassing, burglary, drug trafficking, aggravated assault with a weapon, domestic violence, among others. 

The interdictions occurred near San Clemente Island, 80 nautical miles southwest of Point Loma near San Nicolas Island, and off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico. 

“These interdictions show the great lengths dangerous criminals will go to avoid apprehension, including taking to the open ocean in unsafe, overcrowded vessels,” CBP AMO Southwest Region Executive Director Hunter Robinson said. “Their desperation puts lives at risk. Our crews are dedicated to stopping these dangerous individuals far from shore to keep our communities safe.”

At the CBP Otay Mesa Port of Entry, agents recently seized more than 3,000 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of more than $4.9 million – from a single truck. CBP officers pulled over a Mexican driver of a tractor trailer and found 300 packages of meth hidden behind a compartment.

In March, CBP San Diego Field Office officers seized 6,130 pounds of narcotics worth more than $14 million. Combined, they seized 4,484 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,138 pounds of cocaine, 382 pounds of fentanyl and 37 pounds of heroin at ports of entry in San Ysidro, Otay Mesa and Calexico. The narcotics were concealed inside vehicle door panels, back seat and rear quarter panels, CBP inspectors found. 

The San Diego Sector has historically reported among the highest apprehensions of illegal border crossers along the southwest border. After Texas border security efforts expanded under then-Texas Border Czar Mike Banks in 2024, the San Diego Sector became the epicenter of illegal crossings, The Center Square first reported.

California saw illegal entries totaling more than half a million in each of the last two years of the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.

Under the first full year of the Trump administration, they dropped to 137,917 apprehensions in California in fiscal 2025, The Center Square reported.  

The number was roughly one-third more than the number of gotaways Border Patrol agents reported in California in fiscal 2023, more than 101,300, The Center Square reported. Gotaways are those who illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture.

California shares the smallest international border with Mexico of the four southwest border states – 137 miles. It’s nearly evenly split in linear land mileage between the CBP sectors of El Centro and San Diego.

The San Diego Sector is the largest of the two sectors, covering nearly 57,000 square miles, including 931 miles of coastal border stretching to Oregon. It shares 60 linear miles with Mexico by land and 114 coastal miles along the Pacific Ocean.

The area with the greatest foot traffic includes roughly 7,000 square miles that encompasses beaches, mesas, an inland mountain range, canyons and high desert.

By last May, CBP closed a processing center in San Diego erected by the Biden administration to move inadmissible illegal foreign nationals into the country, The Center Square reported.

Despite this, cartel-orchestrated illegal activity continues, including constructing tunnels to avoid detection to smuggle people and drugs underground.

In April,  San Diego Sector Border Patrol Tunnel Team agents uncovered and disabled another large-scale narcotics smuggling tunnel under part of the Otay Mesa POE, The Center Square reported. Since 1993, San Diego Border Patrol agents have found more than 95 tunnels in the area and destroyed them.

Under the Trump administration, a smart wall system is also being built in California, primarily in the San Diego Sector. It includes nine miles of new Smart Wall and 52 miles of system attributes in the sector and eight miles of Smart Wall and 63 miles of system attributes in the San Diego and El Centro sectors.