Border officials at the Paso del Norte International Bridge seized a cargo of cocaine from a car trying to cross into the United States.
Court documents showed that Christopher Herman Barrio was arrested on Jan. 22 after being caught smuggling almost 40 pounds of cocaine. He allegedly said members of the criminal organization known as "La Linea" had paid him $1,500 to smuggle drugs into the U.S., and that he had been paid before for successfully smuggling a smaller amount and delivering it.
Born as an armed wing for the Juarez cartel indented to help the drug trafficking organization defend its border territories in and around Chihuahua, La Linea has evolved into a drug and human trafficking group. Federal agencies have said that La Linea also taxes other Mexican criminal groups to move their merchandise through the Juarez Valley and generates revenue by selling synthetic drugs such as fentanyl.
According to Insight Crime, La Linea also has a significant presence along the border with El Paso, where it controls the local drug market in the city center. Authorities believe the group is responsible for the uptick of drug smuggling in the area in recent years.
Barrio was arrested after Customs and Border Protection officers noticed he was avoiding eye contact and increasingly tightening his grip on the vehicle's steering wheel. Shortly after CBP officers sent the Acura MDX, who was carrying a woman and three children, to a secondary inspection area where they detected fresh paint in the vehicle's undercarriage.
After taking a look, officers found a trap door under the rear seats and pulled 15 bundles of a white powdery substance, according to a complaint affidavit filed last Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Border Report says.
The substance was later determined to be cocaine, with each bundle weighing just over a kilo. Barrio agreed to be interviewed by members of Homeland Security Investigations and, according to a federal arrest affidavit submitted to U.S. Magistrate Judge Miguel Angel Torres, he confessed to HSI officers of working for the La Linea cartel.
A detention hearing for Barrio was scheduled for Jan. 29 in a district court in El Paso.
Just last October the Department of the Treasury sanctioned five high-ranking members of the La Linea cartel. Authorities say La Linea is also involved in human trafficking across the United States. In 2019, members of the Ciudad Juarez-based criminal group murdered nine American citizens, including six children, in Sonora, Mexico.
Originally published on Latin Times
