b'O ur beloved Coastal Bend is to many the affordable, semi- stant and endless war on smuggling, that enlists federal agents from Immigration tropical paradise discovered conveniently at the southernand Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement centerpoint of the United States. As the first major metro- Agency (DEA). Each and every of those 230 miles is also aggressively patrolled by politan area located past the border hot zone known as theeach sheriffs office and Rio Grande Valley, the Coastal Bend has for decades servedcitypolicedepartment as a relay point for drug and human smugglers headedlocated along the route, to points north, and for money and gun runners headedplus hundreds of Texas south, back into Mexico. The cultural underbelly that livesDept.ofPublicSafety and thrives in the Coastal Bendan underground economy(DPS)statetroopers, built around the distribution of narcotics, the acquisitionandevenbyaspecial of firearms, and the cleansing of millions of dollars in cashis not unlike those thatnarcotics task force that exist in almost every metropolis on earth. From the street level, to the distributors,operatesinstealthy, and on to the cartels in Mexico, the smuggling and drug trades are populated by fam- black-on-blackpatrol ily businessesLa Familiathat gives regulation and boundaries to a world wherevehiclesandanswers societys rules do not apply. At least thats how its supposed to work. directly to the Texas At-The overland corridor now known as Interstate 69 (U.S. Highways 77 and 59),torney Generals office.connecting Greater Houston, the fourth largest metropolitan area in the U.S., withTheLaredoSt.toThe Sarita Checkpoint, located on Interstate 69 Corpus Christi, the Valley and finally Mexico, is arguably the most heavily patrolled17thSt.neighborhood,40 miles south of Kingsville and 65 miles north stretch of highway in North America. The full assortment of law enforcement juris- locatedwestoftheof Harlingen, is the last Border Patrol inspection dictions located along the 230-mile route from Victoria to Brownsville wage a con- CrosstownExpresswaystation north of the United States/Mexico border.28 THE COOASASTTAL BEND MA TURED: The Stories that Mattered TheC talBend.comom102 THE C AL BEND MAGAGAZINEZINEFEALate Summer 2018 TheCooasastalBend.c'