114 kg! The US Customs broke the record of fentanyl seized in a single time

The U.S. Customs and Border Administration said on January 31 that a batch of nearly 114 kilograms of fentanyl was seized at the Nogales Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, breaking the record for the weight of the opioid drug seized at a single U.S. border port. The U.S. Customs and Border Administration said that Nogales Port of Entry personnel conducted a routine inbound cargo inspection at noon on the 26th and found drugs hidden in an 18-wheel tractor trailer transporting Mexican cucumbers. When customs officers inspected the vehicle for the second time, the scanner showed “abnormalities” in the cargo. At the same time, sniffer dogs indicated that there were drugs on the vehicle. Customs then found 400 packages of white powdery substances and a small amount of pill-like substances in a secret compartment under the floor of the rear compartment of the vehicle. After identification, 100 packages of powder and pills were fentanyl, weighing 114 kilograms, and 300 packages of powder were methamphetamine, also known as “ice”, weighing 179 kilograms. The truck driver involved was a Mexican and was arrested that day and detained in the U.S. federal government detention center on suspicion of illegal possession and transportation of drugs. Doug Coleman, an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, believes that the successful seizure on the 26th was not due to the drug-trafficking clues of the Drug Enforcement Administration, but was due to the “simple, old-fashioned” method of the customs officers ordering the driver to stop for inspection and the professional intuition of the inspectors, which is “admirable”. Michael Humphreys, director of the Customs and Border Protection Administration at the Nogales Port, said that fentanyl the size of a few grains of salt can quickly kill a person, and the lethal dose of fentanyl contained in 114 kilograms is “impossible to estimate”. Fentanyl is a powerful analgesic, 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Excessive skin contact and inhalation can be fatal. Legally prepared fentanyl is often used to relieve severe pain in terminally ill patients. However, the Associated Press reported that some Americans mix this drug with other drugs or forge it into other pills and take it as a drug. This phenomenon has been “rampant” in the United States in recent years. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that of the 63,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2016, 18,000 were related to fentanyl, accounting for 29% of all drug overdose deaths, ranking first. The Associated Press reported that more and more drug traffickers are smuggling fentanyl across the US-Mexico border, hiding such drugs in transit vehicles. The US Drug Enforcement Administration said that 85% of the illegally imported fentanyl was seized at the San Diego Port of Entry in California. Today, the number of seizures is increasing on the southern border of Arizona, the “territory” of the Mexican “Sinaloa” drug cartel. The Drug Enforcement Administration set a record for the weight of fentanyl seized in a single seizure in the United States in 2017. In August of that year, drug enforcement officers found 66 kilograms of fentanyl in an apartment in New York City that was related to the Sinaloa gang.