SAN DIEGO – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from the San Diego Field Office seized a variety of narcotics worth an estimated quarter billion dollars from January 1 to April 30.
“To create safer and stronger communities, CBP officers utilize their training, experience, and an array of technologies to seize an alarming amount of narcotics,” said Sidney Aki, CBP Director of Field Operations for San Diego. “Statistically, fentanyl is one of the deadliest drug threats our nation has ever encountered and CBP is on the frontline seizing record amounts of it. Preventing cross-border smuggling of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs is one of our top priorities.”
The San Diego Field Office is comprised of the following ports of entry: San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, San Diego air and seaport, Calexico East/West, Tecate, and Andrade. Since January, the following narcotics were seized at those ports.
- Marijuana – 1,535 pounds seized ($3,838,150)
- Cocaine – 5,287.27 pounds seized ($83,939,100)
- Heroin – 226.83 pounds seized ($3,086,400)
- Methamphetamine – 26,579.09 pounds seized ($55,816,089)
- Fentanyl – 4,403.38 pounds seized ($119,893,800)
In total, as estimated $266,573,500.00 worth of narcotics were interdicted in 1,359 separate incidents. Suspects in these incidents were arrested and turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation and processing. The narcotics and any associated vehicles used to smuggle the drugs were seized by CBP officers. SDFO will continue to work closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement to crack down on drug smuggling.
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