In 2008, almost 3,000 pounds of marijuana were confiscated along with more than $65 million in cash, and 20,000 arrests were made. It's all part of a coordinated effort between the Texas Department of Public Safety, local and federal agencies.
DPS is set to add another helicopter to the fleet in March. It will be stationed in Longview.
The success comes down to technology. The state has invested tens of millions of dollars, and DPS says it's put them one step ahead of the smugglers.
Patrolling the border can be intense work. Helicopters fly two-man crews, so one person can be keeping an eye out for drug smugglers with weapons. On Wednesday, DPS released video showing the smugglers. Lieutenant Stacy Holland, a DPS pilot, says it's easy to tell from the video how brazen these smugglers were.
"You can see in the video how it was pre-staged, pre-coordinated, and they were waiting on the transport vehicles that were most likely going to be stolen vehicles also to run that load across the river. [The smuggled goods would] be loaded into some pick-ups, then be loaded into a stash house where it could be dispersed into smaller loads," he said.
Part of what makes their missions so successful is all the high tech equipment on board. The helicopter cameras work just as well at night, through thermal imaging.
"It's unreal what we can do with these new helicopters," said Lt. Holland.
Each one costs close to $4 million. They have 14 in their fleet, with another coming on-line next spring.
It's made it much harder for traffickers to make it successfully across the border. They will literally plunge the stolen trucks into the river to get away. They know the vehicle will sink but drugs will float. Troopers say it's the traffickers last ditch effort to hold on to those drugs.
"We're disrupting these attempts -- as you can see clearly on the video that they elected with our presence to abort that load and try it again at some other point," said Lt. Holland.
