National Security

Feds Seize More Than 1,000 Pounds Of Fentanyl In A Month For First Time In 2021

REUTERS/Loren Elliott

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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Federal agents seized a record amount of fentanyl in June, according to statistics released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

CBP agents seized 1,060 pounds of fentanyl in June, the most since December 2020, statistics released by CBP on Friday show. The 1,060 pounds seized in June 2021 were more than the amount of fentanyl seized in the last three Junes combined. The agency noted 109 seizures in June, down from 132 in May, for an average of 9.7 pounds per seizure.

CBP has already set seizure records in the Fiscal Year 2021, which began in October 2020. Agents have seized 8,507 pounds of fentanyl in FY2021, a 3,700-pound increase over FY2021, with three more months in the year. (RELATED: Border Patrol’s Fentanyl Seizures Increase By 4,000% Amid Crisis, Officials Say)

Two milligrams of fentanyl is enough to kill an average adult, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

A record 93,331 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Wednesday. The total marked a 31% increase over 2019 numbers, the largest single-year jump in more than half a century. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl caused more than 57,000 overdoses, CDC statistician Dr. Robert Anderson told The Wall Street Journal.

“Definitely fentanyl is the driving factor,” he said.

Republicans have blamed President Joe Biden’s border policies for the increase in drug trafficking.

“What President Biden has done with the border, opening up … fentanyl has increased by 300%, killing Americans as it comes across,” House Minority Leader and Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy said Friday morning on Fox News.

Former White House advisor Stephen Miller claimed that “Biden-Harris anti-borders agenda is … lethal.”