By Kate Morrissey | 4:30 p.m. Aug. 23, 2016 | Updated, 4:41 p.m.


U.S. Border Patrol agents look on during a news conference in a lot alongside the border with Mexico Wednesday, April 20, 2016, in San Diego. A nearly half-mile-long tunnel leading from Mexico to San Diego was discovered and more than a ton of cocaine and seven tons of marijuana was seized, the U.S. attorney's office said Wednesday. Six people were arrested. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) The Associated Press

The Border Patrol is on track to have more apprehensions in the San Diego sector this fiscal year than in fiscal 2015, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

San Diego Border Patrol officers apprehended 25,979 people from Oct. 1, 2015, through July 31, a 15 percent increase from the previous year when they apprehended 22,448 people in the same timeframe. In all of fiscal 2015, the Border Patrol apprehended 26,290 people.

The number of people taken into custody crossing into the San Diego sector peaked in 2008 at 162,390, according to the data, which goes back to 2002. Since then, the number has dropped dramatically. Apprehensions were up slightly in 2014 but decreased again in 2015. According to CBP, the highest peak in apprehensions was in 1986 at 629,656.

Almost 20 percent, or 5,013, of those caught crossing the border without permission so far this year have come from countries other than Mexico. The two largest groups came from Guatemala and China, according to Customs and Border Protection.

According to the CBP data, that is more than double the previous peak, which was 2,040 in 2014. In fiscal 2015, just less than eight percent, or 2,021, came from countries other than Mexico.

Of the nine border patrol sectors along the country’s southwest border, San Diego ranked fourth last year with the number of apprehensions, according to CBP. The Rio Grande Valley had the most at 147,257.

The San Diego Border Patrol has already confiscated more heroin in fiscal 2016, at 3,493.26 ounces, than in any previous year in the data. The previous high was 2,880.19 ounces in 2014. Marijuana confiscations are up as well, at 8,457 pounds so far this year compared with 8,158 pounds in fiscal 2015. However, marijuana confiscations have trended downward from a peak in 2011 at 68,825 pounds.

Russ Baer, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said the increase in heroin moving across the border in the San Diego area is consistent with trends across the southwest border as drug cartels move to take advantage of the country’s growing opioid addiction.

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