U.S. Customs and Border Safety Officers have arrested a Mexican nationwide who was allegedly making an attempt to smuggle $85,000 value of fentanyl tablets.
The suspect was arrested by brokers working the I-19 Checkpoint, John R. Modlin, Chief Patrol Agent of CBP’s Tucson Sector, mentioned Monday. The checkpoint is close to the Arizona-Mexico border.
Modlin mentioned the person was making an attempt to smuggle the tablets underneath his garments whereas onboard a shuttle that was headed to Tucson, which is roughly 80 miles north of the worldwide border.
The case has been turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s workplace in Phoenix. No further particulars have been launched.
The arrest got here lower than every week after 100 Republican members of Congress referred to as on President Biden to label fentanyl-related medicine a schedule-one substance.
Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil, a Republican, led a letter with over half of the Home GOP Caucus to Biden, calling on the president to proceed his assist of cementing fentanyl’s extremely unlawful standing underneath the Managed Substances Act.
“Fentanyl kills extra folks age 18-45 than automobile accidents, suicide, or COVID-19,” Steil informed Fox Information Digital in an e mail assertion. “We can not stand by and watch as Individuals are being killed by the flood of fentanyl-related substances coming into our nation.”
Fentanyl-related substances are lethal artificial opioids ravaging American communities. The medicine, alongside the bottom drug they’re altered from fentanyl, are the present main reason behind overdose deaths within the U.S.
Fentanyl can be one of the widespread unlawful substances confiscated from unlawful immigrants crossing the southern border, with the lawmakers writing that “U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) reported a 1,066% improve in fentanyl seized at eight Southern Texas ports throughout Fiscal 12 months 2021.”
