Arizona: 320,000 Fentanyl Pills, Heroin, Meth Confiscated at US-Mexico Border During Drug Smuggling Attempt

Arizona U.S.-Mexico border agents discovered a huge load of several types of drugs on Saturday inside a gas tank and other parts of a vehicle.

Fox News reported that the drugs were containing 2.5 pounds of black tar heroin, nine pounds of heroin, and 89 pounds of methamphetamine. Authorities also found 320,000 fentanyl pills.

Officials noted that the drugs were allegedly hidden inside a gas tank, the side, and rocker panels of a vehicle trying to get inside the United States.

A separate bust on Saturday has resulted in the confiscation of more than 40 pounds of drugs and another 150,000 fentanyl pills inside the rocker panels of another vehicle.

More smuggling attempts are being seen by the border agents as the situation at the border continues to escalate.

U.S. Mexico Border Drug Smuggling Attempts

In February 2022, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has come up with a plan to scan 100 percent of arriving vehicles at the border with the rising drug overdose deaths in the U.S. The CBP intends to roll out new "nonintrusive" inspection systems to screen significantly more trucks, according to a Washington Post report.

Alberto Flores, the CBP director for the Laredo port of entry, said that the system will be a "game changer" for the agency. Flores added that the machine can scan eight times as many trucks per hour, saying that more scans will also increase the probability of a seizure.

CBP's Laredo field office confiscated 588 pounds of synthetic opioid fentanyl during the 2021 fiscal year, which is an eleven-fold increase over the 50 pounds detected the previous year.

Smugglers use false vehicle panels with hidden compartments and bulk produce shipments to hide the drugs from plain sight. In addition, vehicles' gas tanks, engines, and batteries can be used too with secret chambers.

Flores said that the agency will adjust with the cartels, the same way they adjust to CBP's inspections.

Drug Overdose in the U.S.

Data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics showed that there were around 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in April 2021, which shows an increase of 28.5%.

Meanwhile, Black and indigenous people in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by drug overdose. The drug overdose deaths for American Indian and Alaska Native people saw a 39% increase over the previous year, as reported by NPR.

The CDC noted that the differences in overdose deaths cannot be fully explained by patterns of substance abuse.

Dr. Debra Houry, acting principal deputy director at the CDC, told the press at the time that the disproportionate increase in overdose death rates may be partly due to health inequities. Houry cited those as unequal access to substance use treatment and treatment biases.

CDC's Mbabazi Kariisa, the main author of CDC's report, highlighted that younger Black people had the largest increase in overdose deaths, which is at 86%. Kariisa said that the age range was 15 to 24 years old.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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