‘Biden Needs to Do His Job’: Montana Attorney General Says Fentanyl Seizures Spiked 20,000 Percent

Montana has experienced an over 20,000 percent increase in fentanyl seizures by anti-drug forces since 2019, with the state’s attorney general calling on President Joe Biden to “do his job” and “secure the border.”

Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s (R) office also announced Wednesday that the amount of fentanyl seized more than doubled between 2022 and 2023 alone, “shattering previous records.”

Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) task forces seized a total of 398,552 dosage units in 2023, compared to 188,823 dosage units in 2022. 

The levels are a nearly 600 percent increase from 2021 — when drug task forces seized 60,557 dosage units — and a 6,000 percent increase from 6,663 dosage units in 2020.

Knudsen said:

Fentanyl is a poison that’s killing men, women, and children at unprecedented rates and devastating Montana communities. As Attorney General, I’m doing everything I can to combat this crisis. We’re putting more boots on the ground and giving prosecutors the tools they need to hold perpetrators accountable, but until the southern border is secure the problem will not be solved.

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Knudsen, who previously served as the Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives, went on to criticize Biden’s lack of response to the fentanyl and border crises.

“President Biden needs to do his job, follow the law, and secure the border,” the Republican said.

According to the AG’s office, the total quantities of fentanyl seized are added from six RMHIDTA task forces, which also work to take other drugs off of the streets.

The teams “seized 41.31 total pounds of cocaine, nearly twice that of last year’s 24.11 pounds,” officials said. “Methamphetamine seizures increased slightly, with 211.94 pounds taken off the streets in 2023 compared to 200 in 2022.”

The State Crime Lab has also preliminarily reported that 80 people died of fentanyl-related overdoses in 2023 — a 1,900 percent increase from the four deaths the state saw in 2017. The deaths recorded by the lab only include those that require autopsies, so the real number is larger.

“Please, never take a pill that isn’t prescribed to you and talk to your children about the dangers of drugs. Just one pill can take a life,” Knudsen warned citizens.

While Americans wake up to the Biden administration’s role in the fentanyl epidemic, a new book at the top of the New York Times bestseller’s list is busting the story wide open.

Peter Schweizer’s newly released Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans dives deep into the ties between Chinese criminal organizations and the Democrat elite, including Biden, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and border czar Alejandro Mayorkas.

According to the publisher’s blurb, “Schweizer and his team of forensic investigators spent more than two years scouring a trove of restricted Chinese military documents, data-mining a mountain of American financial records, and tracking US political lead­ers’ investments and family businesses.”