Horse smuggling exposes cracks in US defenses against screwworm
REDFORD, Texas, Sept 5 -
asserted
smuggling → expose → screwworm
When sheriff's deputies intercepted a trailer carrying six horses near the border town of Redford, Texas, they uncovered more than a livestock violation.
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they → intercept → violation
The animals had crossed the Rio Grande illegally from Mexico through a shadowy smuggling network, bypassing the veterinary inspections, health certifications and quarantine measures that the U.S. requires for livestock.
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U.S. → cross → livestock
Smuggled animals are coming into focus as possible hosts for New World screwworm.
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animals → smuggle → screwworm
The flesh-eating parasite began infesting U.S. cattle in June despite efforts to halt the spread, such as a U.S. ban of more than a year on Mexican livestock, a team of government inspectors on horseback and a swarm of sterile flies.
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parasite → eat → flies
The horses caught near Redford in late May were not infested, but the case highlights a little-enforced part of the U.S. response to the threat.
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case → catch → threat
As U.S. authorities restricted cattle imports and disrupted billions of dollars in trade to contain the fly, a cartel-linked trade in horses and other animals continued moving through remote stretches of the border.
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trade → restrict → border
For more than a year, U.S. officials have argued that illegal livestock trafficking from Central America helped carry screwworm north.
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trafficking → argue → screwworm
But Reuters found illicit animal movements have also persisted along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, often taking the same routes used to smuggle drugs and people.
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movements → find → drugs
A previous screwworm outbreak killed thousands of animals in the U.S. before the pest was declared eradicated in the 1960s.
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pest → kill → 1960s
In Texas, where authorities confirmed the first new U.S. animal cases this year, experts estimate a widespread outbreak could cost the economy up to $1.8 billion.
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outbreak → confirm → billion
The Trump administration has partially reopened the border to Mexican livestock to bring relief to U.S. consumers, with beef prices at record highs after the ban, despite rising infestations in Mexico.
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administration → reopen → Mexico
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials, law enforcement and animal-industry experts said smuggled animals range from high-value horses bought for racing and rodeos to dogs used in illegal fighting rings and cattle.
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animals → say → rings
Authorities have also intercepted exotic animals, including primates, bears and tigers in recent years.
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Authorities → intercept → years
Mexico's animal health agency Senasica has confirmed over 2,000 equine cases of screwworm since the outbreak started in 2024.
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outbreak → confirm → 2024
"These kinds of movements represent a risk because they allow the fly to travel much faster than it could move naturally," said Oscar Rico, a researcher at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, who co-authored a study predicting how animals could spread screwworm.
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animals → represent → screwworm
BORDER PATROLS REVEAL SMUGGLING SCALE
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PATROLS → reveal → SCALE
During a week in August, Reuters visited three remote communities along the Texas-Mexico border, joined patrols with local officers and interviewed sheriffs, veterinarians and former Border Patrol agents.
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Reuters → visit → sheriffs
They described the challenge of policing hundreds of miles of rugged terrain where animals, drugs and people can cross undetected.
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animals → describe → terrain
Presidio County Sergeant Deputy Sheriff Jaime Sanchez, who investigated the Redford case, said trafficked horses can fetch at least $30,000 on the black market, with smugglers able to undercut legal sellers by avoiding import paperwork, taxes and veterinary requirements.
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smugglers → investigate → paperwork
Smugglers often take the horses to Houston and Dallas, where they sell them for farm work, racing or charrería, Mexico’s traditional equestrian sport.
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they → take → work
Sanchez's department has intercepted more than 50 smuggled horses in the past two years by pulling over horse trailers, an unusual sight in the dry, border community of Presidio, Texas.
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department → intercept → Presidio
Redford, historically known as "El Polvo" (the Dust), is a near-ghost town, with roads lined by abandoned homes and a shuttered school.
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Redford → know → homes
With fewer than 20 families living there, the community has become a vulnerable corridor for illegal crossings controlled by Mexican cartels, where vast stretches of isolated terrain can provide cover, Sanchez said.
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Sanchez → live → cover
On a scorching day in August, he pointed to a shallow stretch of the Rio Grande where smugglers walked the horses across the river and through the private property of an older resident before loading them into a trailer.
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smugglers → point → trailer
"It's easy for them to pay someone $500 or $1,000 per horse to cross it, load it onto the trailer, and drive off," he said.
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he → pay → trailer
Presidio County is working with federal officials to curb animal smuggling, which Sanchez attributed to La Linea, a cartel that the Trump administration designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in July.
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administration → work → July
The FBI also linked the group to criminal activity along the border.
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FBI → link → border
"Since these are security matters, the issue of screwworm always comes up because it can hit economies very hard," Sanchez said.
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Sanchez → come → economies
Mexico's environmental regulator Profepa said in a statement that it cooperates with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to share information on "trafficking cases, coordinated enforcement operations, and the return or repatriation of live wildlife specimens."
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it → say → specimens
Spokespersons for Mexico's security, agriculture and foreign ministries declined to comment.
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Spokespersons → decline → ministries
UNDOCUMENTED CROSSINGS EVADE INSPECTIONS
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CROSSINGS → evade → INSPECTIONS
U.S. officials have not linked any of the country's 48 confirmed screwworm cases to smuggling.
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officials → link → smuggling
Many experts think that is likely an undercount since wildlife and smuggled animals evade scrutiny.
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wildlife → think → scrutiny
The USDA has not identified how screwworm first reached the U.S., saying in a statement that epidemiological investigations are ongoing.
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investigations → identify → statement
Scientists, veterinarians and epidemiologists interviewed by Reuters said undocumented animal crossings present the same types of disease-transmission risks that officials have linked to illegal cattle movements originating in Central America, because animals moving outside regulated channels may avoid inspections and treatment that could identify infections.
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that → interview → infections
USDA Inspector General John Walk said the recent smuggling at the U.S. southern border "seems more pronounced" and that animal trafficking is not just an agricultural concern, but a national security issue heightened by screwworm.
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trafficking → say → screwworm
"It could be a vector," Walk said at his office in Washington, D.C.
In July, Walk traveled to Brownsville, Texas, to alert local law enforcement to the risk animal-trafficking networks pose of spreading screwworm.
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networks → say → screwworm
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said on X in early August that the department was "cracking down" on illicit livestock movements in a post about the U.S. screwworm response.
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department → say → response
Ricardo Ramirez, 57, has spent his life watching cattle roam across his sunbaked ranch in Zapata County, about 500 miles (805 km) southeast of Presidio, where his family has owned land since the 1940s.
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family → spend → 1940s
…and 17 more, not listed.
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