Border seizures of fentanyl, drug central to tariff war, fell in FY 2024

President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada centers around stopping illegal immigration and fentanyl from entering the United States from those countries.

The Trump administration said fentanyl, in addition to illegal immigration, constitutes a national emergency, giving the president the power to authorize tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

“Today, I have implemented a 25% Tariff on Imports from Mexico and Canada (10% on Canadian Energy), and a 10% additional Tariff on China … because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl,” Trump posted Saturday on social media platform Truth Social. (The tariffs on Mexico and Canada were later postponed for a month after Trump reached border security agreements with those countries.)

Americans spend about $150 billion annually on illicit opioids and narcotics, according to a 2019 study from researchers at Rand.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Friday news conference that fentanyl has “killed tens of millions of Americans.” (Leavitt later said during the press conference that “the amount of fentanyl that has been seized at the Southern border in the last two years alone has the potential to kill tens of millions of Americans.”)

Related: Mexico, Canada both delay tariffs after Trump meetings

Fatal overdoses from fentanyl and all other street drugs decreased roughly 22%, from 111,451 to 86,678, from August 2023 to August 2024, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC estimates that overdoses from synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, declined 27%, from  79,815 deaths to 57,997, between September 2022 and August 2024.

The decline was a notable change in overdose trends that had been rising in the U.S. in previous years.

During Trump’s first term as president from January 2017 to January 2021, fatal overdoses from illegal drugs in the U.S. rose 44.5%, from 65,571 to 94,788.

The Trump administration also said that “illicit drugs of all kinds have poured across our borders and into our communities,” according to a news release.

Total seizures of fentanyl at both the Canadian and Mexican borders was down 18.8% in fiscal year 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, according to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

CBP agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border in FY 2024, which runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

In comparison, 21,100 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the Mexican border during the same period.

One of the largest fentanyl seizures in CBP history occurred in August at the Port of Lukeville near Tucson, Arizona.

CBP agents seized 4 million blue fentanyl pills – weighing more than 1,000 pounds – from a U.S. citizen driving a pickup truck. The truck was hauling a sport recreational vehicle on a utility trailer. The fentanyl pills were hidden inside the frame of the trailer, CBP said.

One of the most recent drug busts at the border was the seizure of $1.6 million in cocaine concealed in a tractor trailer at the port of entry in Roma, Texas.

CBP officers found 50 packages of alleged cocaine weighing 120 pounds hidden in a shipment of soft drinks in the trailer.

According to a 2010 study by the Department of Justice, the most common ways illicit drugs are smuggled across the border include using tractor-trailers, rental trucks and passenger cars through land ports of entry.

In FY 2024, total CBP drug seizures at the border increased 4.4% year over year to 573,000 pounds. CBP seized 275,000 pounds of drugs at the Mexican border, compared to 11,600 pounds at the Canadian border.

The increase was led by seizures of methamphetamine, which rose 24% year over year to 174,000 pounds in FY 2024, and marijuana, which increased 14% to 175,000 pounds.

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