U.S. Border Patrol agents seized 105 pounds of imported fentanyl pills less than two weeks after illegal drugs were discovered in Southern California.
According to a news release from the San Clemente Border Patrol Station, agents stopped a suspicious silver vehicle near Avenida Vista Hermosa on Interstate 5 around 4 a.m. Friday. San Clemente is located 53 miles north of San Diego.
A Border Patrol K9 team conducted a non-intrusive examination of the car, alerting agents to continue their search.
Agents found a huge number of plastic-wrapped parcels inside trash bags in the car’s truck.
They contained 40 cellophane-wrapped bundles of blue fentanyl pills.
The male driver, described only as a US citizen, was apprehended. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department eventually received the suspect and the narcotics.
“Transnational criminal organizations continue to threaten our communities by bringing dangerous narcotics such as fentanyl into our country,” San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel stated. “We will continue to disrupt these organizations through our vigilance and commitments to serve and protect our communities.”
On September 6, San Diego County officials seized approximately 168 pounds of fentanyl tablets during a traffic check on Interstate 8 in Pine Valley. The narcotics had an estimated street value of $1.3 million.
Operation Apollo, a multi-agency anti-fentanyl operation that started in southern California on October 26, 2023, and expanded to Arizona on April 10, produced this seizure.
The San Diego Sector found about half of the 2,800 pounds of fentanyl that the US Border Patrol confiscated in 2023. It has around 60 linear miles of international border with Mexico.
San Diego Border Patrol agents have recovered about 700 pounds of fentanyl this fiscal year.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, illicitly produced fentanyl accounted for 68% of the total 107,081 drug overdose deaths in 2022. “Even in small doses, it can be deadly,” according to the CDC.
According to the CDC, illegally manufactured fentanyl is to blame for the majority of recent fentanyl-related overdoses.
It is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
