Fentanyl warning issued as US intensifies crackdown on smugglers and traffickers

Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

SAN DIEGO - Caribbean cit­i­zens are be­ing warned about the grow­ing threat posed by fen­tanyl, as Unit­ed States au­thor­i­ties in­crease ef­forts to dis­man­tle hu­man smug­gling and transna­tion­al crim­i­nal net­works op­er­at­ing along the south­ern bor­der.

Speak­ing dur­ing a brief­ing with 13 in­ter­na­tion­al jour­nal­ists in San Diego on Thurs­day, Adam Gor­don said fen­tanyl re­mains one of the most dan­ger­ous drugs con­fronting com­mu­ni­ties be­cause many peo­ple con­sume it un­know­ing­ly through coun­ter­feit pills or con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed drugs.

He said recre­ation­al drug users and young peo­ple are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble be­cause they of­ten have no tol­er­ance to the pow­er­ful syn­thet­ic opi­oid.

"That's when we lose kids. That's when we lose recre­ation­al drug users be­cause they have no tol­er­ance for this ex­treme­ly pow­er­ful drug," Gor­don said.

The warn­ing car­ries sig­nif­i­cance for Caribbean na­tions, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, which au­thor­i­ties have pre­vi­ous­ly iden­ti­fied as a tran­sit point for mi­grants trav­el­ling north through Latin Amer­i­ca in­to the Unit­ed States. US of­fi­cials have re­peat­ed­ly warned that mi­grant routes can over­lap with transna­tion­al crim­i­nal net­works in­volved in nar­cotics and hu­man smug­gling.

Gor­don said the Jus­tice De­part­ment in­creas­ing­ly views these threats as glob­al and re­quir­ing stronger co­op­er­a­tion among coun­tries.

"These in­ter­na­tion­al crim­i­nals need an in­ter­na­tion­al re­sponse," he said. "With­out that in­ter­na­tion­al re­sponse, there will be no de­ter­rence, there will be no jus­tice."

He said the South­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia, which han­dles pros­e­cu­tions con­nect­ed to one of the busiest bor­der re­gions in the Unit­ed States, has record­ed sig­nif­i­cant suc­cess­es through joint op­er­a­tions in­volv­ing fed­er­al agen­cies and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners.

Ac­cord­ing to Gor­don, around 75 per cent of the of­fice's cas­es orig­i­nate from ar­rests by US Bor­der Pa­trol in­volv­ing peo­ple at­tempt­ing to en­ter the coun­try through un­of­fi­cial routes, in­clud­ing coastal ar­eas and re­mote ter­rain. Af­ter ar­rests, in­ves­ti­ga­tors of­ten analyse phones, de­vel­op ev­i­dence and build cas­es tar­get­ing wider crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tions.

He said in­ves­ti­ga­tions led by the in­ves­tiga­tive arm of the De­part­ment of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty ac­count for be­tween 15 and 20 per cent of the of­fice's work­load and of­ten fo­cus on larg­er crim­i­nal en­ter­pris­es rather than in­di­vid­ual cross­ings.

Those in­ves­ti­ga­tions, he said, have helped au­thor­i­ties pur­sue hu­man smug­glers and traf­fick­ers op­er­at­ing through or­gan­ised crim­i­nal struc­tures while al­so tar­get­ing car­tels in­volved in fi­nanc­ing and fa­cil­i­tat­ing il­le­gal move­ment.

The dis­trict has al­so built a rep­u­ta­tion for pros­e­cut­ing ma­jor car­tel-re­lat­ed cas­es. Gor­don said in­ves­ti­ga­tions orig­i­nat­ing in San Diego fre­quent­ly ex­tend be­yond the bor­der in­to Mex­i­co and oth­er parts of Latin Amer­i­ca.

He point­ed to co­caine traf­fick­ing net­works linked to Colom­bian dis­si­dent groups, say­ing nar­cotics prof­its con­tin­ue to fi­nance larg­er crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tions.

"As we've de­prived the car­tels of much of their smug­gling in­come, which is bil­lions and bil­lions of dol­lars, they've con­tin­ued to turn to co­caine, which is high­ly prof­itable," he said.

Gor­don said co­op­er­a­tion with au­thor­i­ties in Colom­bia, Ecuador, and Mex­i­co has helped dis­rupt sup­ply chains and strength­en pros­e­cu­tions.

Al­though at­tempt­ed il­le­gal cross­ings have re­port­ed­ly fall­en in re­cent months, he said the re­duc­tion has al­lowed pros­e­cu­tors to pur­sue a greater pro­por­tion of of­fend­ers.

"If peo­ple don't feel like they're go­ing to be pros­e­cut­ed, that de­ter­rent ef­fect just doesn't ex­ist," Gor­don said.

He said a com­bi­na­tion of phys­i­cal bor­der se­cu­ri­ty, in­tel­li­gence-led in­ves­ti­ga­tions, and co­or­di­nat­ed pros­e­cu­tions re­mains cen­tral to dis­rupt­ing hu­man traf­fick­ing op­er­a­tions and pre­vent­ing or­gan­ised crim­i­nal groups from ex­pand­ing.

Asked about the Venezue­lan gang Tren de Aragua, Gor­don said it does not have a large pres­ence in Cal­i­for­nia, al­though it op­er­ates in oth­er parts of the Unit­ed States.

Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va is on as­sign­ment as part of the Unit­ed States For­eign Press Cen­ters’ Se­cur­ing Our Bor­ders re­port­ing tour.