An Arizona sheriff said “the war on drugs is back” in America as the growing border crisis overwhelms local law enforcement.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels shared the strong words about drugs crossing the nation’s southern border during an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Friday.
“They’ve set us up for failure here on the southwest border, completely,” Dannels told host Bill Hemmer.
“This fiscal year we’ve had 10,000 pounds of fentanyl, 180,000 pounds of meth, 86,000 pounds of cocaine, 5,000 pounds of heroin and 311,000 pounds of marijuana come through the southern border,” he added.
Dannels declared the “war on drugs is back,” blaming the open border for allowing the large flow of illegal substances into the U.S.
“The war on drugs is back, and until America steps up on this and secures this border, it’s only going to get worse.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection tweeted Wednesday about one of many recent large drug seizures.
“On Saturday, CBP officers working at the Pharr International Bridge Cargo Facility seized $16.5M of meth. In total, nearly 1,180lbs of meth was concealed inside a trailer,” CBP tweeted.
On Saturday, CBP officers working at the Pharr International Bridge Cargo Facility seized $16.5M of meth. In total, nearly 1,180lbs of meth was concealed inside a trailer.
Learn more: https://t.co/Xnac7sGzrp pic.twitter.com/44AIP9eVFa
— CBP (@CBP) October 13, 2021
“CBP officers assigned to the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility encountered a commercial tractor trailer, arriving from Mexico,” CBP said in a statement. “A CBP officer referred the conveyance for further inspection, which included utilizing non-intrusive imaging (NII) equipment and screening by a (canine team). After physically inspecting the conveyance, officers discovered 468 packages of alleged methamphetamine weighing 1,179.47 pounds (535kg) concealed within the trailer.
“CBP OFO seized the narcotics and vehicle, and the case remains under investigation by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI).”
The agency reported another seizure earlier this week that included $5.9 million worth of illegal drugs.
@CBP #Officers at the Port of #Nogales working in the Commercial Facility seized approximately 467 lbs of cocaine concealed within boxes of produce. The total est. value of the narcotics was $5.9 MILLION!” CBP tweeted Monday.
COCAINE LOAD: @CBP #Officers at the Port of #Nogales working in the Commercial Facility seized approximately 467 lbs of cocaine concealed within boxes of produce. The total est. value of the narcotics was $5.9 MILLION! pic.twitter.com/HVHujMyV7D
— Port Director Michael W. Humphries (@CBPPortDirNOG) October 11, 2021
By April, the border had already experienced an 800 percent increase over the previous year in fentanyl seized by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“We have obtained enough fentanyl coming across the border to kill every single person in the state of New York,” Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in May.
Abbott called the flow of drugs “a very deadly situation.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.