SAN DIEGO (AP) — As overdose deaths continue at a record pace, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced a new government-wide strategy Thursday involving scores of agencies that will target the precursor materials used by traffickers to make fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.
Under the plan, CBP will work with the postal service and express consignment carriers, air carriers, and other logistic companies to share information about suspicious goods, potential transit routes, and other data that can help thwart the supply chain of fentanyl and other illicit synthetic drugs. Legal goods that could be targeted include molds and presses to make pills, as well as chemicals.
Legal goods used in the making of fentanyl have been arriving increasingly via air cargo from Asia to airports including in Los Angeles and then driven south into Mexico where cartels produce the drug and send it back to the U.S. to be sold illegally, officials said.
The aim is to hit “each node of the supply chain, based on data-driven intelligence,” the agency said.
The strategy will start in the San Diego corridor and then expand to other cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, officials said. It will leverage partnerships at all levels: state, local, tribal, territorial, law enforcement, governments, commercial industries, nongovernmental partners, and the international community, to combat networks tied to the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history.