We're familiar with cartels smuggling people, guns, cash and drugs into the U.S. from Mexico.
But...puppies?!?
"We encountered a driver that had 25 puppies hidden in a duffel bag inside his vehicle," Rick Pauza, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in Laredo, tells News Radio 1200 WOAI's Michael Board.
Is it illegal to smuggle puppies into the USA?
Technically, they are considered to be farm animals, which have to be declared at the border, because of the possibility of bringing in diseases that could infect livestock
.In addition, the puppisr were in very bad physical shape.
They have been taken to a veterinary clinic in Laredo. The smuggler is charged with animal cruelty.
Pauza says it was an interesting distraction for the perpetually stressed Customs officers at the largest inland port in the USA.
"CBP is kind of known for thugs, bugs, and drugs," he said. "This time we were able to avert the importation of a commercial quantity of animals."
PHOTO' GETTY