(The Center Square) – The U.S. Border Patrol Spokane Sector, working with Montana Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies, arrested more than 50 people during a multi-agency interdiction and enforcement operation along the Interstate 90 corridor near St. Regis.
Transnational criminal organizations are “engaged in narcotics trafficking and alien smuggling along the I-90 corridor,” Border Patrol and MHP confirmed. Federal, state and local law enforcement partnerships are “ensuring coordinated enforcement and enhanced public safety across western Montana,” they said. They remained focused on disrupting criminal organizations that threaten public safety and enforcing immigration laws, they said.
During a five-day operation, law enforcement officers made 51 arrests, including 41 illegal foreign nationals. Arrests included an illegal foreign national and convicted violent sex offender, fugitives with felony warrants and multiple DUIs. They also recovered a stolen vehicle and found and rescued two juveniles who were reported missing from Washington state.
The operation was coordinated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection-Spokane Sector Border Patrol agents working in a Targeting and Intelligence Division. Border Patrol agents from Spokane Sector’s Whitefish, Eureka and Bonners Ferry stations and from CBP’s Havre Sector also were involved, as were MHP’s Criminal Interdiction Team (CIT) and Strategic Enforcement Traffic Team (SETT), Mineral County Sheriff’s deputies and Montana Army and Air National Guard Counterdrug Task Force members.
They seized a combined more than 14 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 14 pounds of cocaine, four grams of fentanyl powder and 118 grams of marijuana, Border Patrol and MHP said.
The seizures struck “a significant blow against criminal networks operating in the region,” CBP Spokane Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Jason Liebe said. The operation demonstrated “the power of collaboration. By combining intelligence, aerial surveillance, and coordinated enforcement, we were able to disrupt criminal activity, recover missing juveniles, and strengthen public safety across western Montana.”
“I am proud of the outstanding work that our teams did during this operation to keep drugs and fugitives off our streets. By partnering with local agencies, we continue to keep Montana a safe place for all,” Montana Highway Patrol Col. Kurt Sager said.
MHP CIT arrested three illegal foreign nationals and interdicted more than 14 pounds of methamphetamine in Billings during the operation, he added.
The operation was also an outworking of the Montana Department of Justice joining a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) Task Force Model partnership. Earlier this year, ICE called on state and local law enforcement agencies to join three 287(g) programs, a Jail Enforcement Model (JEM), a Task Force Model (TFM) and Warrant Service Officer (WSO) model, The Center Square reported.
As of Dec. 11, ICE has signed 1,236 Memorandums of Agreement for 287(g) programs in 40 states. They include JEM agreements with 144 law enforcement agencies in 31 states, WSO agreements with 436 law enforcement agencies in 35 states, and TFM agreements with 654 agencies in 34 states, according to the latest data from ICE.
In addition to the Montana Department of Justice, three sheriff’s offices in Flathead, Gallatin and Garfield counties have signed MOAs with ICE, ICE says.
The multiagency operation on I-90 was conducted after a record number of illegal border crossers were apprehended by CBP and Border Patrol agents at the northern border during the Biden administration.
The majority of illegal border crossers were apprehended and encountered in five northern border states: New York, Washington, Vermont, Maine and Montana, according to CBP data, The Center Square reported.
The majority of northern border states reported the greatest number of illegal entries in U.S. history in 2024, the last year of the Biden administration, according to CBP data. At the height of the border crisis, illegal entries reached nearly 200,000 at the northern border in 2024 and in 2023, The Center Square first reported.
For fiscal years 2022 through 2025, 754,928 illegal border crossers were reported in 14 northern border states, according to the latest available CBP data.
During this time, a record 32,036 were apprehended in Montana.
Although Montana saw a drop in 2025 from record highs in 2024, the number of illegal border crossers apprehended in 2025 was more than double the number apprehended in 2022, according to the data.
The data excludes “gotaways,” the official term used by CBP to describe foreign nationals who illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture, don’t make immigration claims and don’t return to their country of origin. A record more than two million gotaways were identified by Border Patrol agents under the Biden administration nationwide, although the figure is expected to be much higher, The Center Square first reported.
