Thread: Drug Cartels Fuming at New U.S. Policy Screening 100% of Mexican Cargo Trucks

Drug Cartels Fuming at New U.S. Policy Screening 100% of Mexican Cargo Trucks

AUGUST 01, 2017

In a major shift from lax Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration is finally allowing customs officers to screen all cargo trucks entering the U.S. from Mexico and sources on both sides of the border tell Judicial Watch Mexican drug cartels are fuming. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is using X-ray technology and other non-intrusive tools to screen 100% of cargo trucks crossing the southern border after eight years of sporadic or random screening permitted under the Obama administration.

“We felt like we were the welcoming committee and not like we were guarding our borders,” said veteran U.S. Customs agent Patricia Cramer, who also serves as president of the Arizona chapter of the agency’s employee union. “The order was to facilitate traffic, not to stop any illegal drugs from entering the country,” Cramer added. “We want to enforce the law. That’s what we signed up for.” Cramer, a canine handler stationed at the Nogales port of entry in Arizona, said illicit drugs are pouring in through the southern border, especially massive quantities of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says is more potent than morphine.

Approximately 471,000 trucks pass through the U.S-Mexico border monthly, according to figures published by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The busiest port of entry is in Laredo, Texas where 167,553 trucks enter the U.S. from Mexico monthly, followed by Otay Mesa in California (76,953), El Paso, Texas (58,913), Hidalgo, Texas (45,355) and Nogales with 29,439. Other busy ports include East Calexico, California (29,173), Brownsville, Texas (16,140) and Eagle Pass, Texas (12,952). Trucks bring in everything from auto parts to appliances, produce and livestock. In fact, a veteran Homeland Security official told Judicial Watch that cattle trucks passed without inspection during the Obama administration because Mexican farmers complained that the security screenings frightened their cows. “Our guys were livid that we were not allowed to check cattle,” the federal official said.

Frontline customs agents stationed along the southern border confirm that trucks containing “legitimate” goods are often used by sophisticated drug cartels to move cargo north. This is hardly surprising since most illegal drugs in the United States come from Mexico, according to the DEA, and Mexican traffickers remain the greatest threat to the United States. They’re classified as Transitional Criminal Organizations (TCOs) by the government and for years they’ve smuggled in enormous quantities of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Last year the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the nonpartisan agency that provides Congress with policy and legal analysis, published a disturbing report outlining how Mexican cartels move record quantities of drugs into the U.S. Because cartels move the drugs through the Southwest border, western states have become part of what’s known as the “heroin transit zone,” according to the CRS.

Federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch Mexican cartels operate like efficient businesses that resort to “other more treacherous routes” when necessary, but driving through a port of entry in a cargo truck is a preferred method of moving drugs. Cartels station shifts of spotters with binoculars in Mexican hills near border checkpoints to determine the level of security screenings. “They know if we’re on the job, the level of screening that we’re conducting,” Cramer said. “The cartels watch us all the time.” Nogales is a favorite for cartel spotters because the U.S. checkpoint sits in a valley surrounded by hills on the Mexican side, where unobstructed views facilitate surveillance. “They see everything,” Cramer said. For years the cartel spotters saw that much of the cargo passing through the checkpoint was waved through, according to agents contacted by Judicial Watch.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...-cargo-trucks/

Bill Clinton's NAFTA, signed in 1994, had called for Mexican trucks to have unrestricted access to highways in border states by 1995 and full access to all U.S. highways by January 2000. Canadian trucks have no limits on where they can go.

For over 2 decades this provision of NAFTA had been stalled for years by concerns it would put highway safety at risk, increased
drug trafficking, firearms and human smuggling. Mexico retaliated by placing $2 billion in tariffs on a wide range of American goods.

I was furious 2011 when Obama cancelled the 21 year blockade and implemented the provision allowing Mexican trucks unhindered
access to our roads.

Great Job!!!!

I've always wondered about trucks.

Can a dog sniff drugs if it is in a truck load of processed chicken, or pork??

Dogs can differentiate aromas.

Originally Posted by artist

Dogs can differentiate aromas.

Maybe -

I've tried to do some research online and keep getting into sites about 'how to store your stash'.

That's not exactly what I want.

Somehow, I'm just not sure a dog could sniff a box of drugs inside a 53' refrigerated trailer of fresh processed chicken.

They can. These dogs are amazing. So smart and so well-trained. They are very reliable.

This is good!

Mexican drug cartels taking over fentanyl market, fueling a rise in overdose deaths

Mexican drug cartels, seeking to increase profit margins, have started to produce fentanyl – an extremely dangerous opioid that has been linked to a spike in overdose deaths across the country, Fox News has learned.

Fentanyl, which is 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin, has traditionally been manufactured in China and then shipped into the United States.

“[The cartels] set up labs down there just like their traditional methamphetamine laboratories and they’re manufacturing fentanyl and sending it up to the United States. They send it up in pill form. They send it up in powder form. It could look like cocaine, it could look like heroin,” Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Amy Roderick says.

With Mexico now taking over the market, the amount of fentanyl pouring in the United States is reaching levels not seen in years.

“We have seen a doubling over 2016,” said San Diego’s Deputy U.S. Attorney Mark Conover.

According to federal authorities, 70 percent of the fentanyl coming into the country is being smuggled through the San Ysidro Port of Entry just south of San Diego. They expect the numbers to continue to jump as the cartels increase production.

“I think the most unreported issue is the amount of people that are dying from fentanyl and from carfentanil,” Conover said. “People talk about the opioid epidemic and that people are dying from heroin overdoses and opioids but the reality is most, if not the vast majority of these deaths are related to fentanyl.”

Experts say Fentanyl, the powerful drug that killed pop star Prince, is leading to a rise in the number of fatal drug overdoses across the country. The National Center for Health Statistics recently reported that overdose deaths have reached a record high. The deaths from synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, increased 10 percent in five years, from 8 percent in 2010 to 18 percent in 2015.

About six in 10 drug overdose deaths are caused by opioids.


Many drugs busted at the border initially test positive for drugs other than fentanyl. Then they are sent to DEA labs.

“The labs are backed up because of the extreme amounts of narcotics they’re receiving and oftentimes things that presumptively tested positive for cocaine or heroin,” Conover said. “It turns out are actually fentanyl when it gets back to the lab but we don’t find out for months.”

Mexican drug cartels taking over fentanyl market, fueling a rise in ...