Is it? or is the new part that it's being reported? This "news" just looks like an investigation AP conducted on its own. Could they have conducted it years ago, and what would they have found then?

This. TFA barely glanced at it but they mentioned "collaboration with the DEA".

The DEA has been jerking off about how they've been doing this stuff on the east coast corridor for over a decade.

The current CBP situation is basically a Ctrl+C Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Ctrl+V of what DEA was doing under Bush and Obama.

Historically CBP isn't patrolling the entire country, so yeah, at least the scale and reach is definitely new.