It has been a busy fiscal year for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials. Through June alone, enough illegal drugs were confiscated at the border to kill over 6.4 billion people. And the vast majority of that lethal haul is fentanyl.
Every man, woman, and child in the U.S. could be killed 19 times over with the amount of illegal drugs seized at President Joe Biden’s southern border. How much more made it through?
An estimated 22,000 pounds of fentanyl was interdicted. On top of that were 175,000 pounds of methamphetamine and more than 70,000 pounds of cocaine. That total is already more than all of fiscal year 2022.
And it’s the fentanyl that’s filling U.S. graveyards.
Two milligrams of the deadly substance is enough to end a human life. One pound will kill 226,796. As for the 22,000 pounds seized through June, that’s enough doses to take the lives of almost five billion people.
For the record, these totals do not include seizures by state authorities and other federal agencies besides CBP. Texas’ Operation Lone Star confiscated more than 422 million lethal doses of fentanyl through June.
Joe Biden wants $24 billion for Ukraine, but only $4 billion for the border/stopping fentanyl…The very definition of America Last! https://t.co/zM85Dm9MJP
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 10, 2023
An Arizona bust hauled in enough to kill over 40 million, and one traffic stop in Los Angeles yielded enough fatal doses for 600,000 Americans.
CBP statistics tell the shocking tale of just how much deadly fentanyl has taken over the drug trafficking at the southern border. Reuters analyzed a ten-year swath of the agency’s data to paint a clearer picture of the crisis.
In the last quarter of 2022, fentanyl seizures by weight at the border more than tripled the total from just 12 months ago.
Just four years ago, heroin totaled 80% of the opioid doses seized coming in from Mexico. That total has now plummeted to only 7%.
Five years ago, fentanyl pills were only 6% of border seizures. Today that total is almost half.
And the sheer volume of fentanyl being trafficked across the border is overwhelming. There is a stereotype of massive quantities hidden in vehicle compartments and trucks bringing across hundreds of pounds at a time.
The truth is that the fentanyl flood is coming across in much smaller increments that are harder to detect. The median weight seized at the nation’s southern border is only 2.6 pounds. Further, one-fifth of fentanyl seizures are from pedestrians.
In even more stark numbers, fentanyl is now responsible for more than 200 Americans dying every single day. For perspective, that’s the same as four fully loaded Greyhound buses plunging into a canyon every day of the year.
No survivors.
