Synthetic opioids estimated to be 10 times more potent than fentanyl are creeping into the illicit drug market in the U.S., according to new research.
“Synthetic opioids, such as the fentanyl analog and nitazene drug class, are among the fastest growing types of opioids being detected in patients in the emergency department with illicit opioid overdose,” researchers warned in a paper published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open.
Read More
Nearly 90% of U.S. voters are concerned about fentanyl trafficking as drug overdose deaths continue to mount in the U.S. ahead of the 2024 election, according to a new poll.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, found that 57% of those surveyed are very concerned about fentanyl overdose deaths. An additional 32% are somewhat worried, or 89% overall indicating some level of concern.
Read More
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell warns about the importance of drug-related education of youth in her National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day statement Monday.
Mitchell cited the 2022 Arizona Youth Survey, in which 47% of eighth graders said they do not know of the deadly drug, according to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.
Read More
Federal and local authorities in the Phoenix area have seized nearly 100,000 fentanyl pills and more than 20 pounds of fentanyl powder in just two law enforcement actions. This quantity of the Schedule II drug could potentially cause more than 5 million fatal overdoses.
On August 10, agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), working with local Arizona police, reportedly apprehended three men attempting to sell 50,000 fentanyl pills in the Phoenix area, according to Border Report. Only days later, on August 17, Gila County law enforcement reported seizing 49,500 fentanyl pills and 22.88 pounds of fentanyl powder during a traffic stop in Payson on the previous day. Payson is about 90 minutes away of Phoenix.
Read More
All Phoenix public libraries will have free Naloxone kits available as part of a city-wide program to help decrease fentanyl and opioid overdoses.
Naloxone, branded as Narcan, is a fast-acting medication that can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. In 2022, 991 people died of an overdose in Phoenix, accounting for more than half of all overdose deaths in Maricopa County, according to an Aug. 14 news release.
Read More
An increasing number of restaurants and bars across the country are keeping a stock of Naloxone, an antidote to fentanyl and opioid overdoses, according to The New York Times.
Local officials and nonprofit organizations are ramping up efforts to more bars and restaurants as overdoses become all too common in public spaces, according to the NYT. Between February 2022 and February 2023, there were more than 105,000 reported drug overdoses in the U.S., according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Read More
The Biden administration is set to form a global coalition of countries to target fentanyl trafficking, but it doesn’t appear that China, a major source of the synthetic drug, will participate.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to host a meeting Friday with representatives from 84 countries to discuss efforts to disrupt the global supply chains of illicit fentanyl, the State Department said Thursday. However, there’s no indication China intends to participate despite the country being the source of precursor chemicals used by the cartels in Mexico to make the synthetic drug.
Read More
Since Texas’ border security mission Operation Lone Star (OLS) launched more than two years ago, the multi-agency effort has led to the apprehension of nearly 400,000 foreign nationals who entered the U.S. illegally.
Since last April, Texas has sent over 500 buses of foreign nationals to six so-called sanctuary cities.
Read More
Steve Lugo Leon, 24, of Phoenix, Arizona, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison after pleading guilty to intending to distribute an illicit substance containing fentanyl, according to a Thursday release from the Arizona District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (District).
The incident occurred back in 2021 at the Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe. Leon had arranged to sell fentanyl pills and methamphetamine with a client, but when police showed up, the dealer attempted to flee in his vehicle. He also had an accomplice in the car, Rafael Ivan Valenzuela Chairez, 20, of Phoenix; however, in the ensuing chase, Leon hit another vehicle, causing his truck to flip on its side. Chairez attempted to flee on foot, but both dealers were apprehended by police. Officers then found 946 grams of fentanyl, around 9,000 pills, and 12.83 kilograms of methamphetamine.
Read More
Millions of kids and teens in America are falling victim to an insidious campaign to get them hooked on illegal, disposable vapes that are made in China and intentionally marketed in youth-enticing flavors.
Read More
Hundreds showed up for a rally in Scottsdale with Kari Lake and former acting ICE Director Tom Homan Wednesday evening. The event focused on the problems related to Arizona’s border with Mexico, the surge in illegal immigrants under the Biden administration, the increase in crime, including rapes and sexual assaults, and the fentanyl crisis.
Read More
The Arizona District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (District) announced Wednesday the results of a multi-agency collaboration under Operations Blue Lotus and Four Horsemen that has resulted in “more than a ton of fentanyl” being confiscated along Arizona’s border between March 6th and May 8th.
“Thanks to the efforts of our partners at the Department of Homeland Security, we prevented substantial amounts of fentanyl and other drugs from reaching Arizona neighborhoods,” said United States Attorney Gary Restaino.
Read More
The Arizona State Legislature had a busy Monday, with the House making decisions regarding nearly 100 bills covering various issues.
“Busy day at the #AZHouse! 95 bills on the House “shot clock”: the number of bills we’ll vote on today,” shared State Representative Matt Gress (R-Phoenix).
Read More
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (R) released a statement Monday pleading that parents remain vigilant for fentanyl use.
“I’ve spoken one-on-one with parents who have lost their kids to this poison. It is gut-wrenching to hear them talk about having a conversation with a child one evening, only to find that child gone the next morning,” said Mitchell. “We will keep prosecuting these cases and continue to get this information in front of parents and the public.”
Read More
The Arizona District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) released the first quarter of 2023 immigration enforcement statistics for individuals prosecuted in partnership with the Tucson and Yuma Sectors of Border Patrol.
“Reducing migrant smuggling and mitigating the risk to communities impacted by these offenses continues to be a priority for the Office and its law enforcement partners. Some of these prosecutions are directed against leaders and coordinators of alien smuggling organizations. Other prosecutions are aimed at deterring young adult drivers, often recruited over social media platforms, from engaging in this dangerous activity,” the District shared.
Read More
Arizona State Representative Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott) announced Thursday that his bill, HB 2194, to reinstate the Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team (DOFRT) had received Gov. Katie Hobbs’s signature.
“Prevention works and the data provided by the Review Team to help with that is essential to combating dangerous narcotics and overdoses,” said Nguyen. “Entities such as MATForce in Yavapai County, prosecutors, and the State Legislature depend on information from the Review Team to identify and implement recommendations to prevent overdoses.”
Read More
Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) unveiled on Tuesday another batch of legislative actions, signing eight bills and vetoing five. Among the bills to not make it was Senate Bill (SB) 1027, sponsored by State Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale), which would have increased punishments for fentanyl manufacturers who cause injuries to children.
“We have been fighting the opioid epidemic not just in Arizona, but nationwide for decades,” said Kern. “The least we can do is try to protect our children and future generations from exposure to a deadly drug often laced into opioids. This bill had the support of many Democrats, yet Governor Hobbs continues to show her priorities are out of line.”
Read More
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is urging Congress to “begin impeachment proceedings immediately” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. She cites several reasons to justify her request, including claiming he’s violated federal law, lied multiple times under oath before Congress, and is endangering American lives.
In a letter addressed to five Republican congressional leaders Tuesday, she urged them “to act to protect the American people and impeach Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Secretary Mayorkas is directly responsible, and his actions have caused our unprecedented border crisis.”
Read More
The Biden administration announced Tuesday its strategy for combating the supply chain allowing illicit fentanyl to enter the U.S. to kill Americans.
The plan includes partnering with other countries, increasing law enforcement information sharing, leveraging the private sector, increasing financial sanctions and urging congressional action, the White House said in a statement. Roughly 70,000 people in the U.S. died of synthetic opioid overdoses in 2021, up from roughly 57,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Read MoreMaricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (R) announced Monday that four individuals responsible for the 2022 armed robbery of an Arizona jewelry store had been sentenced to prison.
“The victims in this case lived through terrifying moments as they feared for their lives at the hands of criminals,” said Mitchell. “Our office was relentless in the pursuit of justice for those nine individuals inside the store; the money and jewelry taken were recovered.”
Read More
Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced shortly after entering office in January that she would eliminate the Border Strike Force (BSF) that former Governor Doug Ducey created in 2015, sparking outrage from Republican lawmakers concerned about rising crime and violence related to Arizona’s porous border with Mexico. Hobbs said as part of her budget, she would reroute the funding for the BSF elsewhere.
“In the same manner that Joe Biden has destroyed our country with his welcomed support for the prolonged lawlessness and drug crisis along our southern border, Katie Hobbs is destroying Arizona in three short months since taking office by her reckless dismantling of the Border Strike Task Force,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09) told Fox News. “Countless more people will die from Hobbs’ open border policies.”
Read More
The Arizona District of the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that Mexican resident Juan Alfonso Torres-Rodriguez, 27, has been charged with possessing over one million fentanyl pills with an intent to sell them in the state.
According to the DOJ’s report, officials witnessed Torres-Rodriguez participating in a drug transaction in early March. From there, authorities searched his residency and vehicle to discover approximately 108 kilograms of fentanyl.
Read More
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the launch of a program to combat the surge in illicit fentanyl smuggling at the southern border.
Mayorkas announced “Operation Blue Lotus” Tuesday during a visit to the Port of Nogales, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has made large fentanyl seizures, to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) agents to the ports to help collect intelligence on drug cartels to create criminal cases against them. CBP illicit fentanyl seizures at the southern border for fiscal year 2023 are on pace to surpass fiscal year 2022’s seizure of roughly 14,000 pounds of the synthetic narcotic.
Read More
Several states are advocating for harsher fentanyl penalties as overdose deaths surge in the U.S.
Nevada, Oregon, Alabama, Texas, West Virginia and South Carolina have all pushed to increase the length of sentences for fentanyl dealers, according to the Associated Press. Fentanyl is largely responsible for the more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths that occurred in 2021 up from 93,331 drug overdose deaths in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Read More
Mexico is running a “deception campaign” to deflect blame for America’s fentanyl epidemic as Republican lawmakers ramp up calls to target cartels, former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division chief Derek Maltz told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Top Mexican officials, including the country’s president Andres Manuel López Obrador, have in recent days attempted to shift the blame for fentanyl production in their country. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported seizing 11,000 pounds of fentanyl between October 2022 and February 2023 at the southern border.
Read More
Mexican cartels are using Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, as a cutting agent for fentanyl, according to a report exclusively obtained by The Center Square.
On March 3, 2023, the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center unclassified a Situational Awareness Bulletin prepared by the Southern Tactical Intelligence Unit, in conjunction with the Joint Strategic Analysis Unit, to make state and local law enforcement agencies aware of an emerging trend: Mexican cartels are lacing fentanyl with Xylazine.
Read More
A new bill from State Sen. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) aims to bring harsher punishments on those who traffic fentanyl passed through the Senate floor Tuesday with bipartisan support.
“The numbers speak for itself. Trafficking fentanyl is a deadly issue in our state that is only growing and tearing families apart,” said Kern. “These lethal pills are infiltrating our schools and communities. As a result, young and innocent people are losing their lives.”
Read More
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of Arizona announced Thursday a massive amount of seized narcotics and incarcerations following a three-year-long targeted investigation of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel (SDC).
“DEA Arizona is laser focused on the Sinaloa Drug Cartel. We will not stop,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Cheri Oz. “This investigation is a testament to our strong partnerships which enable us to gain the necessary advantage over these evil criminal networks.”
Read More
Arizona state troopers last week seized enough fentanyl to kill nearly 800,000 people. The fentanyl had been smuggled in a pickup truck and made it nearly 150 miles north of the border, authorities said.
Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers on Feb. 16 responded to reports of a single-vehicle collision on I-10 in Sacaton. Located just south of Phoenix, it’s a straight shot north along highways I-19 and I-10, 146 miles from Nogales, Mexico.
Read More
The number of American troops dying from fentanyl more than doubled between 2017 and 2021, according to Department of Defense (DOD) data released Wednesday.
The data show that fentanyl was to blame for 54 overdose deaths in 2021, which account for 88% of drug deaths that year, according to DOD’s response to a bipartisan congressional inquiry. The number is a staggering increase from the 22 overdose deaths caused by fentanyl in 2017.
Read More
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels spoke at the US House Judiciary Committee’s Wednesday hearing on the southern border crisis, speaking on how his county has been affected by the ongoing issue.
“Our southern border, against all public comfort statements out of Washington D.C., is in the worst shape I have ever seen it,” Dannels said. “Communities have been neglected and abandoned, relying on our own local and state resources to address a border that is in crisis mode.”
Read More
The America Project (TAP) held a conference on border security Saturday in Phoenix at the Hershberger Theater. The Border 911 event featured leading experts on human trafficking, cartels, and drugs coming over the border, including former acting ICE Director Tom Homan, who also served as a Border Patrol agent in Phoenix.
Read More
PHOENIX, Arizona – Republican members of the state legislature gathered outside the state capitol to discuss the ongoing crisis caused by conditions at the southern border and how they plan to address it in the coming session. State Rep. Steve Montenegro (R-Avondale) began the meeting by addressing the fentanyl flowing into the country across the border.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is now a public health crisis, and we need to take swift action to deal with what is happening, to combat it,” Montenegro said. “The legislature is focused on empowering law enforcement to stop border crimes by directing resources, forming task forces, and applying pressure on those who are abetting this crisis and denying the disastrous effects it has on our communities.”
Read More
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) announced Friday that it had made multiple discoveries of suspected fentanyl pills being smuggled by newly booked inmates into the Intake, Transfer, and Release Facility (ITRF).
“This week alone MCSO detention officers have seized approximately 260 pills in the jail system, suspected to be fentanyl and pending lab analysis. The seizures were a compilation of three unique incidents,” according to the office.
Read More
Arizona State Rep. Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott) announced Tuesday the introduction of House Bill (HB) 2167, known as the Ashley Dunn Act, which may be a tool to help prosecutors crack down on fentanyl peddlers. “The safety of the people in our state is my top priority,” said Nguyen in a press release. “Fentanyl is killing tens of thousands of Americans each year and destroying families. It’s a public crisis that should unite political parties to act urgently. We are in a war to save lives.”
Read More
Children under age 14 are dying from fentanyl poisoning at a faster rate than any other age group in the U.S., according to a new analysis from Families Against Fentanyl.
In the past two years, synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths among children surged.
Fentanyl-related deaths among infants (children under age one) quadrupled from 2019 to 2021; more than tripled among children between the ages of 1 and 4 and nearly quadrupled among children between the ages of 5 and 14.
Read More
Nogales Port of Entry Director Michael Humphries stated Monday that more fentanyl had been seized at his port in three months than in the entirety of the 2022 fiscal year (FY).
“In the first 3 months of FY23, the Nogales POE has already surpassed the total amount of fentanyl seized throughout all of FY22, which was already a record year,” tweeted Humphries.
Read More
A former top Drug Enforcement Administration official is warning that China is using the Mexican drug cartels to traffic fentanyl as part of a larger “unrestricted warfare” strategy to kill off America’s next generation and supplant the U.S. as the world’s preeminent power.
Derek Maltz, the agency’s former chief of special operations, told Just the News the Biden administration has strong evidence of how China markets the precursor ingredients for fentanyl to the cartels and where in Mexico the production labs are based. But, he said, the administration is allowing cartels to operate freely across the U.S. southern border to move drugs and earn billions of dollars trafficking humans to create new cash flow for their fentanyl supply networks, a scourge claiming more than 100,000 American lives a year.
Read More
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) announced that over 2 million in grant funding would be going to service organizations in rural counties to combat the effects of the opioid crisis.
“Our office has been leading and is continuing to hold accountable manufacturers, marketers, and distributors who have contributed to the opioid crisis,” said Brnovich. “We are now investing settlement funds to reduce the financial impact to Arizona taxpayers and assist people recovering from addiction and resuming their lives as healthy and productive members of society.”
Read More
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Monday called on President Joe Biden to reverse an Obama-era decision to make the Director for the Office of the National Drug Control Policy a cabinet-level position again.
Moody sent a letter to the president asking him to take action immediately before the public health authority Title 42 ends this week, “which will fuel a massive border surge and allow even more deadly fentanyl to flood into the country,” she said.
Read More
A new study from the California-based Millennium Health (MH) showed that fentanyl positivity increased in Arizona by 261 percent between the first half of 2022 and 2019.
“We have already seen too many Arizona families lose loved ones to drugs. Our goal is to work hand-in-hand with public health and safety authorities, health care providers, and community organizations to proactively address drug exposures and help prevent drug overdose deaths,” said Angela Huskey, PharmD, CPE, Chief Clinical Officer at MH.
Read More
Los Angeles County saw accidental fentanyl overdose deaths increase more than twelvefold from 2016 to 2021, according to a new County Public Health Department report.
Accidental fentanyl overdoses killed 1,504 people in the county last year, a roughly 1,280% rise compared to the 109-individual death toll in 2016, according to the report released Tuesday. Total accidental drug overdose deaths more than doubled in that time, with deaths from accidental opioid overdoses and methamphetamine overdoses both rising by over 300%.
Adults from 26 to 39 years old had the highest accidental fentanyl overdose rate of any age group in 2020, while 18- to 25-year-olds had the highest fentanyl overdose hospitalization rate that year, based on the report’s data. Men died of accidental fentanyl overdoses at a far higher rate than women.
Read More
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell revealed that Cristian Machado, 21, has been sentenced for supplying the population of the major homeless camp in Downtown Phoenix with fentanyl and other drugs.
“Selling illegal drugs to anyone in our community is a threat to public safety. To target those who are experiencing homelessness, and particularly vulnerable, is especially cruel, and this sentence demonstrates that my office will hold those who pose a danger to others accountable,” said Mitchell.
Read More
Arizona’s Republican Senate nominee, Blake Masters, spoke Sunday night against incumbent Mark Kelly (D) and the Biden Administration’s failed handling of the Southern border, saying they are not even trying to protect anything.
“Well, [Joe] Biden and Marky Kelly, they’re not even trying. Look at what they’re doing at the southern border. It would be bad enough if Mark Kelly and Joe Biden were trying but failing to secure our border, but guys, they’re not even trying. Day one, one of the first things Biden did, he signed away the border wall,” Masters said. “This dereliction of duty at the southern border, I think it’s just one of many reasons why Senator Kelly is going to be fired on Tuesday.”
Read More
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake gracefully handled an attack ad that featured the mother of deceased Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who blamed Lake and “people like her” for her son’s death.
In the video ad, paid for by the Republican Accountability PAC, Gladys Sicknick is heard introducing herself as “the mother of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police Officer who died defending our country on January 6.”
Read More
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Monday that he had continued his mission to plug holes in Arizona’s border, this time in Cochise County.
“Today, we continued to follow through on our promise to add physical barriers to the border where possible. We stepped up to the plate in Cochise County. Construction on a 10.25-mile border wall gap began this morning [Monday],” Ducey said. “The unresolved border and public safety crisis caused by the Biden admin continues – in Arizona, we don’t stand idly by when our citizens need us most. Arizona isn’t afraid of a challenge. We will not back down. We will protect our state.”
Read More
With just over two weeks until Arizona’s General Election, Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lakes continues her flow of TV advertisements, this time addressing the fentanyl crisis plaguing Arizona.
“I have met with too many grieving families to just stand by while our open border allows millions of fentanyl pills to flood Arizona’s communities and take the lives of our babies. Our open border may be too politically inconvenient for Katie Hobbs to talk about, but Arizona families deserve to know what their candidates are going to do to put an end to this invasion of fentanyl into our state,” Lake said in a statement shared with the Arizona Sun Times.
Read More
As a result of law enforcement operations from May through September of this year, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and law enforcement partners confiscated 36 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill 36 million Americans.
As part of the DEA’s One Pill Can Kill initiative, DEA agents and law enforcement partners in multiple states seized more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and approximately 980 pounds of fentanyl powder.
Read More
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) celebrated the results of a first-of-its-kind law enforcement operation between 26 states to crack down on cartel activity by seizing deadly drugs and firearms.
“In Arizona, we’re taking action to stop the flow of dangerous drugs through the southern border, impede the cartels’ criminal activity and protect our communities,” said Ducey. “Earlier this year, we teamed up with Texas and 24 other states to share intelligence and strengthen security through the first-of-its-kind American Governors’ Border Strike Force. We’re already seeing results thanks to this coordinated effort — including thousands of pounds of drugs being seized all across the nation.”
Read More
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced Wednesday that an enforcement operation spanning from May to September seized millions of illicit fentanyl pills.
“On the frontline as we race to save lives, DEA Arizona continues to seize historic amounts of deadly fentanyl,” said Cheri Oz, the Phoenix DEA Special Agent in Charge of the operation. “It is terrifying that the drug cartels are mimicking candy to make fentanyl appear harmless. We need your help spreading the word about the dangers of fentanyl. It’s a matter of life and death.”
Read More