About this season
Border Wars is an American documentary television series on the National Geographic Channel. The program follows agents of the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other divisions of the Department of Homeland Security as they investigate and apprehend illegal aliens, drug smugglers, and other criminals violating immigration to the United States and customs laws. The series also follows Air Interdiction Agents, and Marine Interdiction Agents who patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as southern Florida and Puerto Rico.
Episodes (14)
1. Bullets Over the Border
Aired 9 July 2012
Agents put themselves in harm’s way searching for armed smugglers fleeing a shoot-out with the Mexican military. Once at the riverbanks, they find a suspected smuggler who has been shot five times. Their mission quickly changes as they rush to save the man’s life.
2. Meth Mobile
Aired 16 July 2012
Drug smuggling has reached “Texas-sized” proportions in the Rio Grande Valley. A canine unit detects a suspicious vehicle coming in from Mexico, and agents discover a massive quantity of methamphetamine concealed within.
3. Contraband Corridor
Aired 23 July 2012
Law enforcement battles to intercept the massive flow of illicit traffic moving through the Rio Grande Valley. Agents in McAllen, Texas, track a group of illegal immigrants in the dark and find themselves outnumbered in a large field.
4. Rio Grande Reefer
Aired 30 July 2012
The Rio Grande River serves as a highway for illegal traffic and dangerous crossings. As the Department of Homeland Security’s surveillance intensifies, powerful drug cartels and human smugglers are trying more desperate tactics.
5. Hidden Tunnel
Aired 6 August 2012
In the southern border towns of Douglas and Nogales, Ariz., agents uncover new and more cunning methods smugglers create to avoid detection, including a drug tunnel under the border.
6. Cartel Cash Stash
Aired 13 August 2012
Along the southern Arizona border at the port of entry, agents detain two families within a 24-hour period, driving similar SUVs and carrying a combined total of nearly $1 million in cash and drugs.
7. Teenage Drug Mules
Aired 20 August 2012
A Blackhawk helicopter leads ground agents on an epic chase after an illegal immigrant through treacherous mountains near Douglas, Ariz. A live surveillance camera alerts Border Patrol agents to a known fence coyote who tries to guide illegal immigrants into downtown Nogales.
8. Tunnel Smoke-out
Aired 27 August 2012
Border Patrol agents cut off a getaway car as it tries to flee the scene of a drug drop in ranchland east of Nogales, Ariz. Agents arrest the driver and seize the drugs, then pursue the smugglers.
9. Midnight Drug Trap
Aired 3 September 2012
Downtown, Border Patrol and ICE agents discover a major drug-running tunnel and suspected smugglers may still be inside. With cartels watching their every move, they must risk their lives to map and destroy it.
10. Cocaine Paradise
Aired 10 September 2012
In Puerto Rico, agents keep a high-value drug seizure from South America secure as they transport it back to San Juan. They also use a DASH 8 plane and radar to find and seize a small drug-running boat in the dangerous Mona Passage.
11. Cocaine Dump Truck
Aired 17 September 2012
Agents in Puerto Rico enter one of San Juan’s most notorious housing projects for an undercover “buy and bust” operation to intercept a dump truck full of cocaine, and race to find illegal immigrants who have landed on a secluded beach.
12. Cash in the Tank
Aired 24 September 2012
When the Coast Guard rescues Cuban refugees from a remote island in the Mona Passage, Customs and Border Protection agents must race to intercept them and verify their identities.
13. Traffic
Aired 14 November 2012
Illegal traffic between the Rio Grande and the Falfurrias Checkpoint in South Texas.
14. War Games
Aired 21 November 2012
Tactical cat-and-mouse games used in the war on drugs.