A massive shipment of the deadly drug fentanyl — enough to reportedly kill 50 million people — was seized by U.S. Border Patrol in Southern California.
“San Diego Agents & local LEO partners arrested 3 and seized 232 lbs. of Fentanyl worth over $3 million,” Raul Ortiz, Chief of U.S. Border Patrol, tweeted. “This amount of Fentanyl had the potential to kill over 50 million people. We continue to take the fight to the cartels and narcotics smugglers!”
San Diego Agents & local LEO partners arrested 3 and seized 232 lbs. of Fentanyl worth over $3 million. This amount of Fentanyl had the potential to kill over 50 million people. We continue to take the fight to the cartels and narcotics smugglers!
Incredible Work!@USBPChiefSDC pic.twitter.com/A4IXpNRnlR
— Chief Raul Ortiz (@USBPChief) February 28, 2023
According to Bill Melugin of Fox News LA, Border Patrol sources said the arrest was made during a traffic stop on a highway in San Clemente in Orange County, 75 miles inland. Melugin posited that the drugs had either been smuggled into the United States through a vehicle that Border patrol missed at a port of entry, or through the use of drug mules.
NEW: Border Patrol reports making an enormous fentanyl bust in SoCal – 232 lbs smuggled in a vehicle, enough lethal doses to kill 50 million people. BP sources tell me the bust took place during a traffic stop on a highway in San Clemente in Orange County, 75 miles inland from… https://t.co/Efh5YdKsQi pic.twitter.com/HMsos9X7ig
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) February 28, 2023
In mid-January, Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw championed the use of the U.S. military to combat the drug cartels smuggling deadly fentanyl across the southern border into the United States.
Crenshaw spoke with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, who prompted Crenshaw by asking what it was that had Crenshaw concerned.
“Well, look, we recently introduced AUMF, an Authorized Use of Military Force against the cartels and any other organizations that traffic fentanyl specifically,” Crenshaw answered. “So why now and why not years ago? These Mexican drug cartels have been around for a while. The difference now is fentanyl.”
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“This is not a drug problem; this is not a war on drug problem; this is a poisoning problem,” Crenshaw declared. “And they are killing about 80,000 Americans a year. And the Mexican government does very little to thwart this.”
“I think there should be bipartisan efforts in Congress to pass an Authorized Use of Military Force to deal with them,” he asserted. “If anything, that simply gives our president more leverage when trying to get the Mexican government to do its job, its job on thwarting immigration, which the cartels also control, and thwarting fentanyl coming north across our border and killing American citizens.”
Crenshaw turned to the deadly intentions of the drug cartels: “These people are a lot more like ISIS than they are the mafia. You recently saw a war in the state of Sinaloa after the Mexican government arrested El Chapo’s son. These cartels can actually battle close air-support; they’re battling government helicopters. This looks a lot like Mogadishu; it looks a lot more like Mogadishu that it does your typical organized crime battle, these people are well-equipped, they set up forward operating bases that are well-armed, right near our border, and they’re extremely dangerous. They’re some of the most capable, most well-funded, most dangerous organizations on the planet, and they’re right there.”
“Mexico is at risk of becoming a failed state,” he noted. “We have to work together with their government to deal with this.”
Related: Crenshaw: Use The U.S. Military To Stop Drug Cartels Killing Americans With Fentanyl