NOGALES, Arizona — A small, sleepy border town an hour's drive south of Tucson has become ground zero in the U.S. government's efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl before it gets into the country.
Federal customs officers who inspect vehicles and people seeking admission from Mexico through this border crossing's commercial, passenger, and pedestrian lanes have prevented 25 million fentanyl pills from making it onto the streets of communities nationwide — in just the past six months.
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More fentanyl was stopped in Nogales than at any other of Customs and Border Protection's 328 land, air, and sea ports nationwide — an indication of how intent Mexican drug cartels are to move the highly lethal substance through this community in southeastern Arizona, as well as the effectiveness of the Department of Homeland Security's seizure efforts.
"Nogales this year is leading all of CBP in fentanyl seizures," said CBP Nogales Port Director Michael Humphries in an interview at his office in April. "We've seized more fentanyl in the last six months than the previous five fiscal years here in Nogales."
CBP officials in Nogales gave the Washington Examiner a behind-the-scenes look at its operations, including how new technology has improved its ability to detect drugs.
CBP's Office of Field Operations' work of screening people, passenger vehicles, and commercial trucks brings in $105 billion annually in revenue through customs fees at these ports of commerce. But the officers here also view their work as the first line of defense for saving lives in the growing drug epidemic.
In 2021, drug overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 — the highest number ever. The introduction of fentanyl into the illicit drug trade across the country was the top contributing factor to the spike in deaths. Americans between 18 and 45 are now more likely to die from fentanyl than from a car crash, COVID-19, heart attack, suicide, or terrorist attack.
The emergence of fentanyl a decade ago marked the third wave of the opioid epidemic following prescription painkillers and heroin during the Obama administration. Fentanyl is a legitimate pharmaceutical drug that is used to treat severe pain and advanced-stage cancer patients.
In 2013, CBP seized just 2 pounds of fentanyl nationwide. As drug cartels discovered fentanyl could be made in labs and was not restricted to growing seasons, the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels shifted their operations to making and pushing more of it into the United States by making fake versions of popular prescription drugs that are laced with fentanyl. Since pills are pressed in cartel-run drug labs, there is no quality assurance, resulting in some pills being more potent than others.
At the start of the fentanyl epidemic, U.S. airport facilities were ground zero for fentanyl seizures. CBP officers found the drug hidden in packages entering the country through international mail. Seizures of fentanyl in the mail have declined as their detection got better and cartels pivoted to ways they can get larger loads in.
The increase in fentanyl seizures over the past decade indicates federal police are increasingly detecting the deadly drug. It also speaks to the lengths cartels will go to traffic the drug.
Last weekend, Nogales officers uncovered 20,000 fentanyl pills hidden in the engine of a motorcycle. Several weeks earlier, officers found 2.5 million pills in two vehicles.
“We’re getting stuff in frames of bicycles and crutches and walkers and ice chests. They hollow it out, take out all of the foam, and fill the walls with fentanyl pills or meth,” Humphries said.
Smugglers come from all ages and backgrounds. Last year, children as young as 13 to adults as old as 79 were caught smuggling fentanyl in Nogales. Roughly 60% of smugglers were U.S. citizens, Humphries said.
The port divides operations into commercial truck lanes, passenger and bus lanes, and pedestrian lanes.
Unlike noncommercial traffic, trucks must send their manifests of what's on board in advance of their arrival, which gives CBP a chance to review the information and save time at the screening.
Officers use that information and the initial interaction at the inspection booth to determine if it can proceed or will have to go through a second inspection through a massive X-ray machine that will scan the truck and give officers a picture of what is inside. Many truck drivers make multiple trips back and forth from Mexico daily and hope to be in customs no more than a few minutes, putting more pressure on officers to work quickly, knowing the role they play in the U.S. supply chain.
Officers can have the truck offload at nearby docks or greenlight it to continue out of the port.
Passenger vehicles veer to the left side of the port, where officers at a dozen lanes will be asked about citizenship, where they are coming from, their destination, and if they have anything to declare, among other questions. Suspicious drivers are sent to a different secondary inspection area where they pull into individual lanes, and officers can use mirrors, flashlights, K-9 units, and more for inspection. The cars can also go through imaging machines and undergo physical disassembling.
Humphries said drugs have been found in all parts of a vehicle.
Pedestrians and travelers on buses and large vans will also be screened at indoor inspection areas.
Humphries pulled out pictures of underage boys and men who, just this past weekend, were caught by his officers with clear bags of pills taped to the outside of their bodies. Internal body carriers have gone from anomalies to normal. One recent incident involved a person with 370 pills stuffed into condoms and stored in a body cavity.
Officers' biggest discovery here was of 2,600 pills on a woman who had them hidden in both body cavities. In internal smuggling cases, drugs can only be extracted by the carrier or by a medical professional at a hospital.
Carriers have never died while at the port, but CBP has had to administer the Naloxone antidote to people who overdosed. K-9 officers also carry Naloxone in case the dogs are exposed to the drug while smelling it.
The Nogales officers must carry out enforcing more than 400 laws of 40 different federal agencies as they search for drugs.
Humphries praised his staff in Nogales and said their seizures were leading to bigger results in court. Ninety percent of fentanyl smuggling cases at the port are now being referred to the U.S. attorney’s office for prosecution, a number that has increased through the years as officers and federal investigators at Homeland Security Investigations present strong cases to federal prosecutors.
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They have seen some recent internal body carriers sentenced to five years in federal prison.
"I don't see it slowing down based on what's happened over these first six months, which has already set all kinds of records for us," Humphries said. "I just see it continuing."