Fewer People, More Cocaine: Smuggling Operations Through Puerto Rico

Illegal border crossings are down across the U.S. border with Mexico, and Customs and Border Protection has also seen a significant decline in drug seizures at the border. But the same cannot be said of drug seizures in the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as cartels look for ways to get their drugs into the United States with the U.S.-Mexico border practically shut down.  

While illegal crossings are down in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, drug smuggling is on the rise. Already in fiscal year 2025, Border Patrol has seized 9,600 pounds of cocaine, while it seized 5,900 pounds in 2024 and 5,300 pounds in 2023. 

“The Caribbean has always been a hot spot for cocaine,” Chief Patrol Agent Reggie Johnson of the Ramey Sector told The Daily Signal.  

The Caribbean’s geographical location makes it a prime region for drug smuggling, according to Johnson. Specifically, Puerto Rico can be thought of as a “bridge to the U.S.,” he explained, because it is geographically much closer to Venezuela, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic—high drug-producing nations—than to the U.S. mainland. 

Most of the drugs entering Puerto Rico are smuggled in via boat, according to Johnson. Once inside the U.S. territory, he says it is easier for smugglers to get the drugs to the U.S. mainland because flights are domestic from the Caribbean into the U.S.  

Smugglers “may mail the cocaine, they may try to travel with the cocaine on planes, or they’ll take other boats or ships toward the United States,” he said.  

Efforts to apprehend drug smugglers is often a joint law enforcement effort that includes the Coast Guard, CBP’s Office of Field Operations, and local police in Puerto Rico. 

“It really should not surprise people if there is an uptick in activity in Puerto Rico because the U.S.-Mexico border has been pretty much shut down,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Signal.  

Drug traffickers are “nimble,” Vaughan says. “They have to find substitutes for the business that they were able to do [while] taking advantage of the U.S.-Mexico border,” she said, adding that there has been an increase in maritime drug smuggling since the start of the Trump administration in January.  

President Donald Trump has prioritized border security since returning to the Oval Office, ending the “catch and release” of illegal aliens, reinstating the Remain in Mexico Policy, and ending a number of “parole” programs used to mass parole illegal aliens into the U.S. under the Biden administration.  

Additional resources are needed to address the increased drug smuggling efforts in Puerto Rico, and Johnson says the passage of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is expected to provide those resources.  

“We’re going to receive the resources and funding like we’ve never seen before for border security,” the Ramey Sector chief said. “You know, my sector personally, we’re going to have more vehicles, more personnel to address the threats, drones, surveillance towers, ATVs—we’re going to be fully equipped to handle the threat and ensure we can detect the threat before it makes landfall.”  

The One Big, Beautiful Bill includes $165 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including $4.1 billion to hire additional border security personnel and “$3.2 billion for new technology and $2.7 billion for new cutting-edge border surveillance,” according to DHS.  

The focus of the Border Patrol right now is “100% situational awareness,” Johnson says, adding that every mile of Puerto Rico’s border is “going to be secure.”  

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