According to Customs and Border Protection officers seized more than 260 pounds of drugs, worth more than $2 million, at the El Paso Ports Of Entry in less than one week’s time.
Sandra Hawkins, Supervisory Customs and Border Protection Officer said they are diligent because CBP cares about the safety of the communities saying, “Keeping our communities safe, these drugs are dangerous. Just recently we’ve seen an increase in hard narcotics and it’s for the American people for their safety, these drugs could be very harmful for the community.”
According to Hawkins a pair of us citizens were nabbed with more than 100 pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine, while a permanent resident was caught with 100 pounds of marijuana and 9 pounds of meth.
However, the biggest rise in drug seizures comes from Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that’s 50-100 times more potent than morphine. According to The National Institute on Drug Abuse, opioid overdoses are on the rise with nearly 50,000 deaths in 2019 alone. Newly released numbers by CBP show that Fentanyl seizures are more than double this fiscal year than last year.
Hawkins said that CBP officers use many different methods to stop the illegal flow of drugs from crossing the border and rely heavily on their well trained force opt spot suspicious activity,
“We have the assistance of our drug sniffing dogs, and our officers are well trained to spot anomalies and when they detect those anomalies, they refer it to a secondary inspection”
It’s during those secondary inspections that the vehicles are searched and the drugs are found. Hawkins wanted to insure the people of El Paso, that CBP continue to works to keep the community safe and officers to into each day with one mission in mind.
“To protect the American people, to safeguard our borders and to enhance the nations economic prosperity.”
For more on drugs click here
For local and breaking news, sports, weather alerts, video and more, download the FREE KTSM 9 News App from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
