Federal and local authorities in San Diego apprehended three men who were in the U.S. illegally – two from Mexico and one from El Salvador – after they reportedly moved nearly 8,000 pounds of methamphetamine valued at over $5 million earlier this week.

The event occurred on Monday around 7 p.m. during a collaborative narcotics investigation in the South Bay area, as reported by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday evening.

SDCSO detectives, along with U.S. Border Patrol agents, witnessed three vehicles that appeared to be loaded with packages of drugs. According to a federal complaint by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, these vehicles were being loaded in a parking lot on Otay Mesa Road.

Federal and local authorities involved in the seizure said there were 61 total bundles of methamphetamine in the three vehicles.  (San Diego County Sheriff’s Office)

When authorities searched their vehicles, they found a total of 61 bundles of methamphetamine, weighing more than 7,700 pounds and valued at around $5.5 million.

“It was one of the biggest seizures of methamphetamine in 2025 in the Southern District of California, and the most significant so far by the new Homeland Security Task Force San Diego, which was recently established by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security at the request of President Trump,” the DOJ said.

Methamphetamine was the drug detected inside the bundles, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. (San Diego County Sheriff’s Office)

All three men were booked into the San Diego Central Jail and face charges related to conspiracy, transportation and possession of controlled substances for sales.