Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows the number of drug seizure events at the southern border is trending downward.
The most recent fiscal year data, from October to August, shows 8,956 drug seizures. This is down 11% from 2022 which reported 10,050 drug seizures for the same time frame. Drug seizures are down nearly 40% from 2020.
As far as which drugs are being seized, there are only two with year-over-year increases.
Fentanyl seizure events are up 4% from last year and cocaine seizures are up 3.4%. Meth seizures plummeted down 28%. Other controlled substances not pieced out by Customs and Border Protection were down 12% and marijuana, still the drug with the largest raw number of seizures, is down almost 5%.
Most drug seizure events take place at border ports of entry. Substantially more drugs are trafficked at border crossing checkpoints. In the past year, more than 90% of all fentanyl was seized at the different ports of entry along the border.
More than half of all fentanyl coming into the country, about 13,000 pounds, is coming through Arizona’s border.
Of that, 90% is trafficked through the ports of entry managed by the Tucson Field Operations Office of USCBP. The remainder is split evenly between the Tucson and Yuma sectors of the border occurring between ports of entry.
Despite this, most of the fentanyl in pill form crosses at ports of entry managed by the San Diego office, 80% of the 1.1 billion doses seized last year.
Arizona ports of entry accounted for 110 million doses seized. This means more fentanyl powder is coming across in Arizona.
