In the last 5 years, 442 million doses of fentanyl have been seized at US borders

From the editorial staff

The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, August 1, 2024, p. 27

The White House highlighted yesterday that “since 2021, the Department of Justice has arrested and prosecuted dozens of major Mexican cartel leaders, drug traffickers and those involved in money laundering, including the Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael The May Zambada Garcia, the leader of The ChapitosNestor Isidro The Nini Pérez Salas, now the main chemical dealers of the Jalisco cartel New generation, “putting dangerous illicit drug traffickers in prison.”

The reference to the arrests of Zambaba, which occurred last week, and of Pérez Salas, who was the head of the plaza The Chapitoscaptured in Culiacán in November 2023 and extradited to the United States, became known after former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on the 23rd that US military attacks against the cartels that control Mexico are absolutely an option, if the Mexican government does not resolve the problem in a proper and rapid manner. (@lajornadaonline https://shorturl.at/2uprw)

The White House said the Biden-Harris administration has engaged with leaders around the world to advance action to combat synthetic opioids globally, establishing a Trilateral Fentanyl Committee with the governments of Mexico and Canada and creating the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, which unites more than 150 countries in the effort.

The administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced a series of actions to counter the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs, as well as the opioid epidemic, the White House said in a statement.

He added that Border officials have stopped more illicit fentanyl at ports of entry in the past two fiscal years than in the previous five combined. More than 442 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl have been seized at U.S. borders in the past five months..

He said $82 billion has been spent on treatments, 40 percent more than the previous administration headed by Trump, to provide support to people affected by fentanyl.

Biden and Harris urged Congress to enact laws that toughen penalties for those who bring deadly drugs into our communities, as well as to close legal loopholes that drug traffickers take advantage of.

The full White House briefing note at @lajornadaonline https://shorturl.at/3M5CT