Anne Milgram, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), delivered a grave warning on Friday that cartels are killing Americans with fentanyl at unprecedented rates.
Milgram stated, “There are two cartels in Mexico, the Sinoloa cartel and the El Jalisco cartel, that are killing Americans with fentanyl at catastrophic and unprecedented rates.” Milgram asserted that cartels have gotten more active than in previous years.
“These cartels are using intentional, deliberate deceit to get fentanyl into the United States and to induce people to buy it – through fake pills, through other drugs, by whatever means possible.”
She continued, “The entire world of pharmaceuticals has transformed.”
In the previous year, there were over 107,000 drug overdoses in the United States, with 70 percent of them including fentanyl.
During the first nine months of the fiscal year 2022, border patrol agents in San Diego and Imperial counties alone recovered more than 5,000 pounds of fentanyl.
‘Increasingly, Mexican gangs manufacture fentanyl for distribution and sale in the United States. The Department of Justice cautioned in a public statement on August 12 that precursors are imported from China and other countries and then crushed into pills, powder, or mixed with other narcotics in huge, industrial-scale laboratories.
Border Patrol authorities in New Mexico apprehended three migrants disguised in camouflage dried grass outfits in an effort to blend in with the surrounding landscape.
In a tweet, US Border Patrol Sector Chief Gloria Chavez praised the ‘ghillie suits’ worn by migrants, stating that people employ ‘amazing strategies to dodge and detect apprehension.’
Since the beginning of current fiscal year, border agents at the southern border have detained at least two million unlawful border crossers.
CBP officials told Fox News that the number of migrants encountered reached 2,001,034 this weekend, with most of the fourth quarter remaining. This number excludes the number of fugitives who successfully eluded capture.
In July, for the first time since February, the agency reported that the number of interactions fell below 200,000 for the first time since then. It was also the second straight month in which encounters decreased, following four consecutive months of rises. More than 700,000 fewer encounters were recorded at this stage in Fiscal Year 2021 compared to the same point in this year.
Meanwhile, migrants continue to disembark from buses at the Port Authority in New York City on Wednesday, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott moves forward with his plan to transfer illegal immigrants to major U.S. cities.
Abbott has deployed at least 6,000 migrants to Washington, D.C., while Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has bused at least 1,000 migrants to the nation’s capital.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser have criticized Abbott’s initiatives, which began in mid-April and prompted Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to undertake the same program a month later, transporting migrants from his state to sanctuary cities.