Border agents arrested a woman and her mother for trying to smuggle liquid meth into the country inside beer bottles taken from their grandmother’s house.
On Saturday, U.S. Border Patrol agents stationed at the Anzalduas International Bridge stopped 52-year-old Yolanda Reyna and her 23-year-old daughter, Saira San Juana Ricalday, who told authorities they were crossing with groceries and beer, according to a criminal complaint.
Ricalday, the driver of the blue Ford SUV, said she was traveling to Pharr with her mother, according to the criminal complaint.
When agents opened the trunk of the vehicle they found two 24-packs of bottled beer that had “differences in the consistency of the liquid.” Agents then conducted a secondary inspection with the help of a K-9 unit that made an alert to one of the beer cases.
According to the complaint, the bottles contained a liquid that had traces of methamphetamine and were estimated to weigh nearly 19 pounds.
Both women were interviewed by Homeland Security Investigation agents. Ricalday told officials they had initially traveled to Reynosa to buy her mother’s medications and then visit her grandmother where they would pick up various items including the beer for her niece’s birthday party.
Federal authorities however, said she “changed her story” after they asked her about the traces of meth in the bottles.
Ricalday then told officials her family has been working for an unidentified woman in Mexico who asks the family to transport various items into the U.S. The family has been allegedly working with the unidentified woman since March 2021 and receives $100 each time.
Reyna told authorities they had made two trips to Mexico. During their first trip they picked up various items from an unidentified man and woman and then returned to the U.S. to deliver the items to a woman named Maria. Reyna claimed to have been asleep during their second trip to Mexico; however, authorities found photos on her phone of the beer cases they were traveling with.
