1.6 Million fentanyl pills, 114 pounds of cocaine seized at the border

 Around 1.57 million fentanyl pills and 114 pounds of cocaine were found in secret compartments of a tractor-trailer, as per the state’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

Port Director Michael W. Humphries tweeted a huge cache of drugs discovered in an “18-wheeler trailer floor compartment” on Saturday, August 20. The vehicle was said to have attempted crossing into Arizona from Mexico at the Nogales Port of Entry when the agents stopped it for inspection.

This massive seizure disrupted the flow of dangerous amounts of fentanyl across the U.S., and may have likely saved many lives. There was still no word of whether or not the seizure was a record-breaking bust.

Earlier this summer, reports said that unprecedented levels of fentanyl have been entering the country via the southern border.

Just a few days before, on August 18, Humphries noted that 250,000 fentanyl pills were also seized. These pills are of different colors and look similar to the appearance of candies. 

The seizures came as deaths from synthetic opioids are skyrocketing, and are up more than 56 percent from 2019 to 2020, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said that over 56,000 people died from overdoses involving synthetic opioids in 2020.

In August alone, officers at the Nogales port have seized 3.1 million fentanyl pills, highlighting the dangerous trend of narcotics smuggling, Director of Field Operations Guadalupe Ramirez said.

More than three million pills in one month show a large increase in an already record-setting trend. Toward the end of July, the Nogales port seizures already exceeded five million fentanyl pills this fiscal year, according to Humphries.

There are also more fentanyl pills being seized in Arizona than in other Southwestern border states. This is because the Sinaloa cartel uses routes that come through Arizona.

Counterfeit pills are also on the streets

In 2021, Anne Milgram, an administrator with the Drug Enforcement Administration, said: “There’s no question in my mind that the vast majority of chemicals are coming from China and going into Mexico and being mass produced into fentanyl and methamphetamine and increasingly into the counterfeit pills that we see on our streets.”

Nationwide, fentanyl seizures increased 203 percent in July over June, while cocaine seizures decreased 56 percent, according to CBP data.

Ports of entry in Arizona saw record-breaking amounts of fentanyl seized in July at 567 pounds, a 318 percent increase from June. Cocaine seizures at ports in July slightly decreased in Arizona. 

With over 2,600 pounds of seizures, the number of fentanyl seizures at Arizona ports has increased 34 percent over what it was at the same time last year. Moreover, over 87 percent of fentanyl this year has been seized at ports of entry rather than by the Border Patrol in the field.

Besides the copious amounts of fentanyl pills being seized at one land port, a tractor-trailer filled with 150 migrants was also stopped in Texas.

The flow of drugs and migrants across the border into the U.S. is a massive problem that the Biden administration still chooses to ignore. How to address the ongoing threat of illegal drug use in the U.S. remains to be a persistent challenge.

Brookings Institute in 2021 wrote that the Biden administration should be especially wary of the likely inevitable growth of fentanyl shipment through maritime areas and the potential for such organizations to use technology to engage in “gray zone” like activities, which could make their trafficking operations even more effective.