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The Fox News camera was at the border when US Customs and Border Protection agents busted a suspicious vehicle trying to enter the country.
“There is a huge misconception that narcotics come through the desert… the reality is that in Arizona so far this year we have seized over 21,000 pounds of narcotics, 18,000 pounds of which are seized at the port of entry” , a CBP director said. Field Operations at the Nogales Port of Entry told Fox News on Monday.
The reality of what officers face at ports of entry was on full display to a Fox News camera crew who captured the moment an officer noticed something suspicious on the bed of a red truck that was trying to cross the border.
FLORIDA POLICE UNIT SEIZES ENOUGH FENTANYL TO KILL 1.5 MILLION ADULTS
Fox News’ William Lajeunesse reports on a CBP bust of a trucker hiding fentanyl in its gas tank.
(Fox News)
According to Fox News’ William Lajeunesse, officers who searched the vehicle cut off the gas tank and discovered 5 to 6 bags of the suspected drug fentanyl floating in the fuel.
Officials credited officers’ instincts and better scanning technology for allowing the bust, something that has become a regular occurrence at southern ports of entry.
ARIZONA SISTERS CHARGED AFTER DEPUTY FIND 850,000 COUNTERFEIT FENTANYL PILLS DURING TRIP: POLICE
Agents at the Nogales port of entry screen about 36,000 pedestrians, cars and trucks every day for narcotics, noting a sharp increase in attempts to smuggle fentanyl across the border. The facility has seized more than one million fentanyl pills in the past two weeks, while the amount of fentanyl seized at the facility has increased from 200 pounds in 2018 to 4,000 pounds in 2022.
US Customs and Border Patrol has seen an increase in attempts to smuggle fentanyl into the United States.
(US Customs and Border Patrol)
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Fentanyl has become a growing problem in the U.S. in recent years, with the drug accounting for nearly 75 percent of fatal drug overdoses in 2021. In total, about 80,000 people in the U.S. died from drug-related overdoses to fentanyl last year.
