The Department of Homeland Security stepped up efforts to quell the escalating fentanyl epidemic within the United States by deploying hundreds of federal law enforcement and investigators to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of its new Operation Blue Lotus.
On Tuesday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced during a trip to the Arizona border that DHS personnel had already stopped more than 900 pounds of fentanyl from entering the U.S. since the operation began on March 13. More than 700 pounds of methamphetamines and 100 pounds of cocaine were also seized as a result of the new initiative, according to the DHS.
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“We are matching this unprecedented challenge with unprecedented solutions,” Mayorkas said during a press conference in Nogales, where he was joined by Gov. Katie Hobbs, the first-term Democrat.
Operation Blue Lotus brings together two DHS agencies to inspect incoming goods and to prosecute federal crimes. Together, Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations officers who work at the ports of entry will conduct more inspections, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations agents will, for the first time, be on-site to begin building a case to present to federal prosecutors immediately.
In its first week, federal law enforcement made 18 seizures and 16 federal arrests as a result of inspecting more vehicles in the joint operation.
“Operation Blue Lotus is a DHS-led, coordinated surge effort to curtail the flow of illicit fentanyl smuggled into the United States from Mexico and bring to justice the dangerous criminal organizations profiting from the illegal production, distribution, and sale of this dangerous substance,” Mayorkas said in a statement issued late Tuesday. “It is designed to help continue to build criminal cases against the transnational criminal organizations behind the networks and facilitators dealing in this deadly substance.”
The Blue Lotus is the fifth volume in Belgian cartoonist Herge’s comic book series, The Adventures of Tintin, in which a Japanese drug smuggling ring in China was busted. The DHS did not respond to a request for comment about the meaning of the operation’s name or if it was tied to the book.
Two days, two huge loads, 2.5 million fentanyl pills.
On Friday, CBP officers found approximately 829,000 fentanyl pills in the quarter panels of a car.On Saturday, officers took down approximately 1,663,040 fentanyl pills hidden throughout a pickup truck. pic.twitter.com/EAjFTxVqxJ
— Port Director Michael W. Humphries (@CBPPortDirNOG) March 21, 2023
The DHS has also sent in more canine units and improved nonintrusive technology that can scan vehicles to see what is inside.
CBP scientists will work at labs at the ports of entry to conduct real-time analysis of substances found on people and vehicles that may not be an exact match for fentanyl but contain precursor ingredients or slightly tweaked versions of the drug.
The move comes a month after President Joe Biden called in his State of the Union address for a greater federal response to fentanyl smuggling. More than 107,000 people in the U.S. died from a drug overdose in 2021, the highest year in history, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increase in fentanyl-laced pills was the biggest factor in the uptick in drug-related deaths, according to the CDC.
Biden called for a “major surge” to stop the production, sale, and trafficking of the drug into and around the country.
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Republicans in the chamber had erupted with calls to “secure the border.”
“You got it,” Biden had responded.
