‘Staggering’ Amount Of Fentanyl Seized at Southern Border

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities seized a “massive amount” of fentanyl at the Nogales Port of Entry on Saturday, Port Director Michael W. Humphries said Monday.

The seizure included approximately 1,270,000 fentanyl pills and two pounds of fentanyl powder that was hidden in the floor compartment of an 18-wheeler trailer. Using the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) metric that one kilogram of fentanyl could potentially kill 500,000 people, the 2 pounds of fentanyl could possibly kill over 450,000 people.

“The amount of drugs flowing into our country is staggering and this is one example of what law enforcement is up against. What is even more concerning is what we don’t find when these types of drugs are smuggled on a daily basis into our country,” San Luis, Arizona, Police Chief Richard Jessup told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Sinaloa cartel has turned Arizona’s deserts into major drug smuggling routes, National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto previously told the DCNF in the Tucson sector.

Fentanyl is a highly-potent synthetic narcotic that’s largely responsible for the nearly 108,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far in fiscal year 2022 CBP has seized over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border, according to the agency’s statistics.

CBP didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.