Tiny podium. Big numbers. Jeanine Pirro toddled up and said the quiet part very loud: “Every day, tons of chemicals that are used to create synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico in China’s undeclared war against America and her citizens.” Pacifiers dropped.
She said agents grabbed two giant shipments on the high seas headed, she says, to the Sinaloa cartel. Start port: Shanghai. End port: Mexico. Inside the barrels? A whole lot of precursors—think mixy-juice for bad batches. Pirro waved at the props and told the playgroup, “There are,1300 barrels filled with precursors to methamphetamine.” Then she put the math in the diaper bag: the chemicals could have made “420,000 pounds of methamphetamine… which would have a street value here in Houston of $569 million.”
Baby Pirro also linked the speed of the grab to new grown-up rules in our baby world, saying, “Because President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have declared the Sinaloa cartel a foreign terrorist organization, it gives all of us in law enforcement the ability to move quicker and to seize quicker.” She warned anyone playing helper: “If they know that they are, they are providing material support to terrorism.”
Then came the visual: “It will take 24 18-wheelers to take these barrels to a storage facility in a secure location.” She added a spooky image for nap time: “I want you to have a visual of dead Americans instead of where those barrels are.”
Todd Lyons shuffled up next. He introduced himself: “Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Todd Lyons. I’m the acting director of immigration and customs enforcement.” He said this is the first time they used a seizure warrant for “material support of terrorism,” citing “18 USC… 2339B.” He said the two shipments came “from the same vendor in China,” and bragged about the catch: “This marks the first time a seizure warrant was issued for the material support of terrorism.”
Lions also went full toy-block math: the profits would be “over half a billion dollars,” claiming the interdiction happened before the toys hit the sandbox: “We were able to stop a threat before it actually came on to US soil.”
Jud Murdoch, the CBP field boss, wobbled to the mic and called the Sinaloa cartel “one of the most violent and brutal terrorist organizations in the world,” framing the grab as teamwork time: “This seizure represents one of the largest interdictions of its kind in history.” He promised more napless nights: “We will continue to stand vigilant using every resource that we can throw at this problem set.”
Reporters squeaked questions. Pirro kept it tight: “We seized it on the high seas.” On timing: “Within the last week.” On secrets: “How we find out about this if I told you then they’d know and that wouldn’t be good.” Lions added the victory lap: “Yes, this is the largest seizure of any precursor chemical ever in the history of the United States.”
Before the juice boxes ran out, Pirro insisted this wasn’t about calendars or campaigns: “It’s got nothing to do with politics… other than the fact that this is the first president who decided that the Sinaloa cartel is a foreign terrorist organization.”
Both Sides’ Reaction
Babies who clapped with sticky hands:
These babies see a mega-haul and hear “largest… in the history,” which sounds like fewer poison sprinkles in the community snack mix. They like “material support of terrorism” tools because it means agents can grab bad stuff earlier, even “outside of the United States.” To them, faster seizures = fewer funerals and fewer monsters under the crib. The image of “24 18-wheelers” stuffed with barrels lands hard; stopping that river at the source feels smarter than chasing puddles in the playroom.
Babies who threw their blocks (but kept listening):
These babies ask follow-ups with furrowed brows. “High seas” is vague; where exactly, and under what authority, did the grab happen? Calling cartels “foreign terrorist organizations” is a power-up, but it’s a big one—what guardrails keep it from scooping up bystanders or tangling trade lanes? Some noticed fuzzy bits (chemical names, exact counts) and worry about number theater. They aren’t pro-barrel—they’re pro-receipts: more transparency on how “the same vendor in China” was pegged, what happens to seized goods, and how success is measured beyond headlines and heat.
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