U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized another large amount of fentanyl and other drugs last weekend at the Nogales, Arizona, Point of Entry (AZ POE).
In a Twitter post on Monday by Nogales Port Director Michael W. Humphries, CBP officers at the port seized approximately 625,000 fentanyl pills, four pounds of fentanyl powder, 34 pounds of meth, and five pounds of marijuana. Officials took the contraband during five different stops.
The seized fentanyl powder was enough to kill 1.5 million people, using a metric set by the Drug Enforcement Administration, or every person in Dallas.
Last weekend’s seizure at AZ POE follows several instances the prior week of CBP stopping illegal narcotics from entering the country.
One seizure carried out on August 22 was of an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer truck. It was carrying about 1.27 million fentanyl pills and 104 pounds of fentanyl powder hidden in the trailer floor, Humphries said. He also noted that officials found 300,000 fentanyl pills, two more pounds of fentanyl powder, 13 pounds of heroin, and 10 pounds of cocaine in the truck’s cab.
Several days before, CBP officials at Nogales POE seized more than 15,000 fentanyl pills that have an appearance closely resembling candy, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The same kind of pills was seized the day before that, Humphries said. In last weekend’s seizure, 12,000 of the nearly 625,000 pills found were rainbow-colored.
“This could be the start of a trend with transitional criminal organizations, targeting younger users,” Humphries said in a tweet.
The multicolor pills are especially worrisome to officials, who fear they will appeal to children as smugglers look for new ways to get the drugs into the United States from Mexico, which is a leading manufacturing area for the illegal production of the synthetic opioid.
In July, fentanyl seizures along the U.S.-Mexican border jumped 200% during the month, The Dallas Express reported. From October of last year through August 15, CBP officials have seized about 10,600 pounds of fentanyl, according to agency statistics.
On Tuesday, Anne Milgram of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration issued a statement advising the public of the trend in multicolor drugs that look like candy or chalk.
“Rainbow fentanyl – fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes – is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,” Milgram said.
“The men and women of the DEA are relentlessly working to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States, ” she continued.