Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Photo by Jerry Glaser. It is a scourge taking the lives of more than Americans each day β around 55, every year. We're in the right places at our land borders and between the ports in international airports, in both the passenger and air cargo environments and at our maritime borders, too. And we know what works. Intelligence-driven operations, relentless, targeting people, partnerships, and technology.
CBP is well positioned to lead the federal government's efforts in this fight. Much of the problem is that chemicals and tools to make the dangerous drugs are coming into the U. Intercepting those drugs is done by traditional CBP methods, such as X-rays and drug detection dogs, but Draganac pointed out the agency is trying to be active and stop the shipments long before they leave foreign shores.
Draganac said CBP works with the government of Mexico to intercept the production materials and products going there and the finished drugs coming back into the U. The threat of fentanyl is certainly an issue that has increased exponentially in the nearly 10 years since the drug started being intercepted in the U. In , illicit fentanyl was basically unknown to CBP, with just 22 pounds intercepted in the first bust. Since then, the amount has skyrocketed each year, with the latest amount seized at the border and ports of entry topping more than 27, pounds from October to the end of September When you consider that just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose, if all that was pure fentanyl and had actually entered into the country, it would have represented more than 6 billion lethal doses coming into the U.
He pointed to operations such as Blue Lotus, a multiagency effort led by CBP that featured targeted inspections at border crossings in California and Arizona, leveraging advanced analytics, intelligence capabilities, and coordination with federal, state, tribal and local partners. These operations consisted of multidisciplined interagency jump teams at strategic locations with an enhanced focus on disrupting the supply chain used in the development and movement of fentanyl.
Operation Artemis led to over seizures, including more than 13, pounds of precursor chemicals and more than pill presses and pill molds to make fentanyl and fentanyl-laced pills, over pounds of finished fentanyl in powder and laced-pills, plus an additional 1, pounds of methamphetamine and over 11, pounds of other drugs.
