Less than two weeks after illegal drugs were also found in Southern California, U.S. Border Patrol investigators found 105 pounds of fentanyl pills that were being smuggled.
According to a news statement from the agency, at around four in the morning on Friday, agents from the San Clemente Border Patrol Station pulled down a suspicious silver vehicle close to Avenida Vista Hermosa on Interstate 5. 53 miles separate San Diego from San Clemente.
After conducting a non-intrusive check of the car, a Border Patrol K9 team notified agents to continue their search. In the truck of the automobile, agents found a number of plastic-wrapped bundles inside trash bags.
They held forty bundles of blue fentanyl pills wrapped in cellophane. The motorist, who was recognized as a male American citizen, was placed under arrest. Afterwards, the suspect and drugs were given to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
“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 disrupting these organizations through our vigilance and the commitments we have made to serve and protect our communities.”
Approximately 168 pounds of fentanyl pills were found by San Diego County authorities on September 6 during an Interstate 8 traffic check close to Pine Valley. The estimated street value of the drugs was $1.3 million.
Operation Apollo, a multi-agency counter-fentanyl operation that started in southern California on October 26, 2023, and moved to Arizona on April 10, is what led to this seizure.
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The San Diego Sector accounted for almost half of the 2,800 pounds of fentanyl that the U.S. Border Patrol confiscated in 2023. The spans over 60 linear miles along Mexico’s international border.
According to the CDC, illegally manufactured fentanyl is the cause of the majority of recent overdose cases associated to fentanyl. It is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.
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