US authorities have reportedly seized enough fentanyl at the US borders in the last three months amid the worsening border crisis, a top-ranking border official revealed on Tuesday.
The revelation came out after lawmakers grilled two US Border Patrol chiefs during a Congressional hearing regarding border security.
In a report published by the New York Post, it was revealed that “Rep. Tim Burchett cited Customs and Border Patrol figures that at least 9,400 lbs of the ultra-dangerous synthetic drug has been stopped from entering the country since October, about 7,200 lbs of which was seized at the southern border.”
During the hearing, the Republican from Tennessee pointed out that the number of fentanyl seized at the border was “enough fentanyl to kill every American five times over.”
The Post also noted that “the lawmaker’s math was based on Drug Enforcement Administration information that as little as two milligrams of the synthetic opioid — an amount so small it easily fits on a pencil tip — is enough to kill a person,” adding that the “killer drug is 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Although it is used as a painkiller in hospitals, it has to be professionally handled and administered to prevent overdoses.”
Enough Fentanyl to ‘kill every American five times over’ seized at the border https://t.co/0ZhrEweSCL pic.twitter.com/MTUn7RskTN— New York Post (@nypost) February 8, 2023
In the recent data, most people who reportedly died of fentanyl were ones who didn’t even know that they were using it.
“In 2022, synthetic opiate deaths averaged over 70,000 a month, according to official data, the highest amounts on record. Drug cartels have turned to smuggling fentanyl over other drugs because it is cheap to make and so concentrated, a small amount can make huge profits,” the New York Post added.
Recently, Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin reportedly told elected officials that “any shipment which makes it into the country has huge potential to be deadly.”
In the statement, Modlin explained that “in the Tucson sector last year we seized about 700 lbs of fentanyl. Based on the lethality of a dose of fentanyl, that’s enough to kill everyone in Arizona 21 times or basically half of the population of the United States.”
It was also revealed that smugglers often stash fentanyl inside coconuts, disguising it as Lego while others stash it on the cavities of cars or tires to bring it over the border.
According to Chief Gloria Chavez, head of the Rio Grande Valley sector, her agents are seeing in Texas the “biggest concern” which is “the liquid fentanyl.”
Chavez claimed that it “is the latest threat that we have seen.”
