U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at the Lukeville, Arizona, recently made what the agency is calling its largest seizure of fentanyl to date. Officers at the port of entry discovered approximately four million blue fentanyl pills weighing more than 1,000 pounds.
The seizure was one of several large fentanyl busts the agency saw during the month of July as part of two special operations targeting fentanyl smuggling and the cartel bosses that move the deadly drug into the United States.
CBP officials said in a statement this week that the record-breaking seizure occurred on July 1 when officers at the Lukeville Port of Entry encountered a 20-year-old United States citizen from Arizona attempting to enter the country from Mexico. The Arizona man was driving a 2011 pick-up truck towing a sport recreational vehicle on a utility trailer, not uncommon at the port due to its proximity to beach recreational areas in Mexico.
Officers decided to perform a more intensive inspection on the vehicle, trailer, and truck at a secondary inspection area. During that search the officers noticed anomalies throughout the frame of the trailer. A K-9 detection team aided in the search that ultimately led to the discovery of 234 packages containing the four million fentanyl pills hidden in the frame of the trailer.
Guadalupe Ramirez, Director of Field Operations, Tucson Field Office, commended the Port of Lukeville, saying, “This is an enormous amount of dangerous drugs that officers at the Port of Lukeville prevented from reaching communities throughout the United States.”
CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner Troy Miller touted the success of the counter-drug operations underway, and the officers involved in the seizure saying, “Every day, CBP officers and agents are on our front line, using their keen instincts and the latest technology to prevent deadly drugs from entering our country and poisoning our communities.”
According to CBP, officers at the same port of entry reported that about 270 pounds of methamphetamine were seized several days later. The second seizure occurred on July 12, when a 45-year-old male Mexican citizen driving a 2007 Ford F-150 pick-up truck also towing a utility trailer sought entry into the U.S. An inspection using a non-intrusive x-ray device and a K-9 inspection team led officers to 39 packages of methamphetamine totaling nearly 272 pounds and an additional five pounds of cocaine.
CBP estimates the street value for these two significant seizures is more than $12.6 million.
These two drug seizures were part of two concerted counter-drug operations, Operation Apollo-Arizona and Operation Plaza Spike. According to the agency, Operation Apollo-Arizona is a counter-fentanyl joint operation focusing on intelligence collection. The operation concentrates law enforcement efforts on disrupting drug and chemical supply, collecting and sharing intelligence, and leveraging valuable partnerships.
Operation Plaza Spike targets the plaza bosses and cartels that facilitate the flow of deadly fentanyl and other illicit synthetic drugs. It is designed to disrupt operations in the “plazas,” cartel territories located directly south of the United States that are natural logistical chokepoints within the cartels’ operations.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, in 2022 alone, 107,941 Americans died from drug poisonings, with a staggering 70 percent of those deaths caused by fentanyl and synthetic opioids. Fentanyl remains the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18-45.
In a campaign launched by the DEA known as “One Pill Can Kill,” the agency warned the public its testing concluded that one in seven counterfeit pills marketed by Mexican drug cartels was found to contain a deadly dose of fentanyl.
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 X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.