A top-ranking border official acknowledged Tuesday that enough fentanyl has been seized at US borders in the past three months alone to kill more than a billion people.
The revelation came when two US Border Patrol chiefs were questioned during a Congressional hearing on border security.
Representative Tim Burchett cited Customs and Border Patrol data showing that at least 9,400 lbs of the ultra-dangerous synthetic drug has been blocked from entering the country since October, of which nearly 7,200 lbs were seized at the southern border Was.
“That’s enough fentanyl to kill every American five times,” said the Republican from Tennessee.
The US population was recorded at 332m in the 2021 census.
The lawmaker’s math was based on information from the Drug Enforcement Administration that as little as two milligrams of a synthetic opioid โ an amount so small it easily fits on the tip of a pencil โ is enough to kill a person.
The deadly drug is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Although it is used in hospitals as a pain reliever, it must be handled and administered professionally to prevent overdose.
However, fentanyl is increasingly killing people who don’t even know they’re using it, as it’s often cut into pills that look like prescription pills and labeled as “oxytocin” or “Xanax.” Sold as.
But it actually causes overdose and death for people who don’t know what they are taking or how strong it is. In 2022, synthetic opium deaths to average over 70,000 per month official dataHighest amount on record.
Drug cartels have turned to smuggling fentanyl in comparison to other drugs because it is cheaper to make and so concentrated, a small amount can yield huge profits.
Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin told elected officials that any shipment that came into the country had a high probability of being fatal.
“Last year in the Tucson area we seized about 700 pounds of fentanyl,” he explained. “Based on the lethality of a single dose of fentanyl, that’s enough to kill 21 times that in Arizona, or basically half the population of the United States.”
Ruthless smugglers hide fentanyl in coconuts, disguise it as Legos or hide it in cavities of cars or tires to get it over the border. A domineering woman was even accused of hiding it in her children’s goods,
“The biggest concern is liquid fentanyl โ which is the latest threat we’ve seen,” said Gloria Chavez, head of the Rio Grande Valley region, which her agents in Texas are looking into.
Modlin acknowledged that fentanyl is being found in cities across the country, despite agents’ best efforts to stop it at the international border.
In Arizona, Border Patrol inland checkpoints have been closed for months due to staffing shortages. The inspection centers are there as a second line of defense to catch any drugs or illegal immigrants that made it across the border.
โYou are preventing agents from doing their jobs; That’s how drugs spread elsewhere,” Arizona’s Yuma County Supervisor Martin Porchus told The Post about three roadside checkpoints in his county.
Democratic Congressman Greg Kaiser of Texas pushed back on the notion that illegal immigrants entering the country are smuggling the drugs โ nine out of ten fentanyl traffickers are American.
“The people driving drugs across the border are citizens with passports who can cross checkpoints,” Kaiser said. โThe people smuggling fentanyl across the border are American citizens. The people who are suffering and dying from overdose in our communities are American citizens – so why on earth are we talking about immigrants today?”
