Porous Border Causes 50 Percent Spike in Fentanyl Overdoses, Texas Sheriff Tells Trump

WESLACO, Texas — A North Texas sheriff told former President Donal Trump his county is seeing a 50 percent increase in the number of deaths related to fentanyl being smuggled from Mexico. His comments came during President Trump’s tour of the Rio Grande Valley with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

“We’re seeing a 50% increase in deadly overdoses this year,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn told President Trump. “In fact, in the first quarter of 21, it was three times the amount it was last year with fentanyl overdoses.”

“We know that the cartel, the Mexican drug cartel is responsible for where it’s going and it’s going all over the country,” Waybourn continued. “I’m in Fort Worth, but it’s happening, and I’d be remiss to say, it’s on every sheriff and every chief and every Director of Public Safety’s radar, this business of fentanyl and the deadliness and the thread it is to us as it continues to grow.”

President Trump asked the sheriff if the fentanyl is coming from China. The sheriff responded that the drugs come from China through Mexico and across the porous borders.

The sheriff said the smuggling suspects they have arrested said they are bringing the drugs directly across the Mexican border into the U.S.

“I certainly believe, and I believe the law enforcement in the room, is that the drug cartels in Mexico should be the number one enemy of American law enforcement, plain and simple. And we need to draw a line and protect our children.”

Sheriff Waybourn told a story about a 15-year-0ld who died from a fentanyl overdose last month. He said the cartels package the drugs in pill form to make them appear safe.

“They got a hold of something they thought was safe,” the sheriff told President Trump. “They had no idea what it was. It was pressed in some cartel lab, far away.”

He explained that the increase in fentanyl smuggling across the porous border caused the price of these deadly pills from $50 a gram in January to about $15-$20 a gram now.

“And what we’re experiencing Tarrant County, way beyond the border,” Waybourn stated. “We’re a hub, we know that we’re a hub where we have cartel agents embedded up there that we’re trying to locate and arrest and prosecute, and we’re doing a pretty good job of that in some cases.”

“But we know that as it comes into the county it does have an effect,” he concluded. “And, you know, to that end, the group of people that it’s hitting is the 16 to 24-year-old group because, again, it appears to be a safe drug, they think it’s a pharmaceutical drug because of these pill presses that they’re using.”

Waybourn’s comments came during a briefing to former President Trump in Weslaco, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon. The briefing, attended by Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, DPS Director Steve McCraw, and several members of the Texas congressional and legislative delegations, brought the former president to the Rio Grande Valley Sector — the epicenter of the human and drug smuggling border crisis.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol.  Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.