As the U.S.-Mexico border has been inundated with children crossing alone and ending up detained in U.S. facilities, liquid methamphetamines are also flowing across the border. The liquid form allows smugglers to disguise the substance in beverage and repurposed plastic containers until reaching a meth house where it is cooked down to crystal form to be sold.
An Associated Press report quoted John Donnelly, once in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fresno office, who said of the Central Valley, “We’re the source point for Seattle, Portland, Alaska and as far east as the Carolinas.”
The Central Valley is not the only place traffickers are getting caught. Down at the border the 16-year-old suspected of smuggling, “volunteered to take ‘a big sip'” to convince inspectors the liquid he had was only apple juice, not meth. The teenager began screaming in pain and died within hours” reported AP.
In late May of this year, five adult males were arrested in connection with a Modesto cocaine and meth trafficking ring according to News10.
One-hundred seventy-six pounds of crystal meth was seized March 20 in Fresno, California through a joint effort between federal authorities, a California Department of Justice Task Force and the California Highway Patrol. No arrests were made at the time of the raid on the Madera residence. A California Department of Justice report determined that “Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations are suspected of trafficking 70 percent of the U.S. supply of methamphetamine through the San Diego port of entry alone.”
Meanwhile Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers with scarce resources are battling mass amounts of people, including many young children, crossing the U.S. southern border, leaving the U.S.-Mexico border even more vulnerable.
Breitbart’s Brandon Darby recorded comments made by National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) Vice President Shawn Moran regarding the stress on border patrol resources and influx of illegal aliens, “Since the CPB started reducing the hours agents can work, we have seen an overall increase in smuggling and illegal alien crossing.”