Border Patrol Keeps Finding the Fentanyl that Supposedly Only Comes Through the Ports

CBP Media Releases can be informative and entertaining. Like the fact that “certain agricultural items” used in Día de los Muertos celebrations (primarily “greenery and citrus used in the construction of remembrance altars”) can’t be brought into the United States, or the story of the miniature pet pig who “Went Wee Wee Wee All the Way Home” after its owner was stopped from bringing it in at Otay Mesa, Calif. Or the fact that Border Patrol agents are seizing increasing amounts of fentanyl, a uniquely dangerous drug, the “vast majority” of which supposedly only comes through the ports.

Fentanyl. In November, CDC reported that drug overdose deaths in the United States were up 28.5 percent in the 12-month period ending April 2021, to over 100,000.

About 75,000 of those deaths were attributable to opioids, with fentanyl — a synthetic opioid — leading the way. That’s because fentanyl is uniquely deadly — up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

According to the DEA, most of the illicit fentanyl in the U.S. drug market is “manufactured in foreign clandestine labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico”. Which begs the question of how it gets over the border.

Many politicians — particularly Republicans — have linked the fentanyl flowing into the United States to the ongoing chaos at the Southwest border.

In an August NPR/Ipsos poll, respondents were asked whether it was true or false that “Most of the fentanyl entering the U.S. is smuggled in by unauthorized migrants crossing the border illegally”. Some 39 percent of respondents — including 60 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of Independents — asserted that this statement was true. For the record, it probably isn’t.

Still, it was a “gotcha” question in a “gotcha” poll, akin to those “man in the street” interviews that have been a staple of late-night TV for years, in which the host is the font of knowledge and the person being asked the question is a rube.

After presenting the results of its poll, NPR snidely and condescendingly explained that “experts” (unnamed) “say the vast majority of fentanyl and other illegal drugs are smuggled through official ports of entry, hidden in large trucks and passenger vehicles, while a relatively small amount is smuggled by cartels across the border between those ports”.

Who's an expert and what’s a “relatively small amount” of fentanyl are, of course, both subjective. In any event, NPR was channeling its inner Joe Biden, who, while explaining that a “wall” was an unneeded luxury at the Southwest border, proclaimed on the campaign trail in 2020: “Today, illicit drugs are most likely to be smuggled through one of the legal U.S. ports of entry.”

Keep in mind this is the same Joe Biden who, during one of his unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2007, told attendees at an event in Iowa that border fences were necessary, because “you can’t take 100 kilos of cocaine over and under a fence. And, when you have limited places where fences are in populated areas, you force these drug dealers and others around, making it easier to apprehend”.

Consistency is not a virtue in politics, and certain news outlets (like NPR) can have short memories when they want to.

Border Patrol Drug Seizures. Again, as I noted (and yes, I am an “expert” by dint of 30 years of immigration and border experience), “most” drugs come into the United States through the ports of entry in seemingly and otherwise licit commerce or travel. That still raises the question of whether the chaos at the Southwest border is providing an opportunity for cartels and smugglers to bring drugs into the United States.

And the answer to that question is “yes”. But you don’t have to believe me. Rodney Scott, Biden’s first Border Patrol chief, explained in a letter to Senate leaders last September that:

[I]llegal entries are being scripted and controlled by Plaza Bosses that work directly for the transnational criminal organizations (TCO) to create controllable gaps in border security. These gaps are then exploited to easily smuggle contraband, criminals, or even potential terrorists into the U.S. at will. Even when [Border Patrol] detects the illegal entry, agents are spread so thin that they often lack the capability to make a timely interdiction.

“Contraband” can be many things, from miniature pigs to Día de los Muertos altar greenery. TCOs aren’t making big money off those items, however. They make it off drugs.

Still, you can doubt me and former Chief Scott. Which brings me to Border Patrol agents’ recent drug seizures.

On October 20, agents responding to a remote camera hit near the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, at 2:43 a.m. came upon a Mexican national carrying a backpack — the definition of “reasonable suspicion”. The CBP press release explains what happened next:

A search of his backpack revealed 24 packages wrapped in black tape. The subject was transported to the south processing center in Eagle Pass, Texas where a subsequent search of his backpack revealed the packages contained 14.77 pounds (6.7kg) of crystal methamphetamine, 5.56 pounds (2.52kg) of fentanyl pills, 1.08 pounds (0.49kg) of cocaine, and 1.08 pounds (0.49kg) of marijuana.

That likely wasn’t all for personal use, given that 2 mg of fentanyl can be a lethal dose, meaning the 2.52 kg that Mexican national was carrying is enough to kill 1.26 million people.

Then there were the events of September 23, when Border Patrol agents in California’s Jacumba Wilderness region came upon two illegal aliens hiking in the mountainous terrain. Nearby, they discovered “a cylindrical-shaped package tightly sealed with saran wrap and tape”. It contained a half-pound of fentanyl.

https://cis.org/Arthur/Border-Patrol-Keeps-Finding-Fentanyl-Supposedly-Only-Comes-Through-Ports

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

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