Consider This from NPR - The People Smuggling Fentanyl Across The Border From Mexico May Not Be Who You Think

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

The number of overdoses from fentanyl continues to soar, as do concerns from those in Washington. Immigration authorities say illicit fentanyl is flowing into the U.S. from Mexico through official ports of entry.Not everyone believes that's the full story.NPR's Joel Rose traveled to the border to find out what's really happening.Fentanyl is largely smuggled by U.S. citizens and other authorized border crossers. We hear the story of one of the smugglers. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. This year, fentanyl is coming in like crazy, and it's going throughout the U.S. Everywhere we hear about addiction and overdose problems. Michael Humphreys is director of the Port of Entry in Nogales in southern Arizona. At the port, tractor-trailers idle as they wait to carry more than 30 million pounds a day of tomatoes, grapes, and other produce into the U.S.

from Mexico. Every day, thousands of people enter the U.S. on foot and in cars. And some of those vehicles and people are also carrying drugs like fentanyl. We don't open the trunk and, hey, there's a bag of fentanyl powder or pills. You know, we're looking at in tires, gas tanks, roof, floor, seats, anywhere you can imagine. Humphreys has decades of experience in trying to stop contraband at the U.S. border. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl are hard to catch because they are so easy to conceal. And smugglers have gotten really good at hiding these drugs,

especially in passenger cars. NPR's Joel Rose spoke with Humphreys about this. I mean, you're talking about in the engine sometimes, right? In the gas tank, like deep in the vehicles. We have disassembled engines before. One time they pulled out two pistons from the engine. The void created by that was filled with narcotics and the engine was still running. Fentanyl is more potent and it's cheaper to make than organic drugs like heroin or cocaine.

And fentanyl seizures in the U.S. have been climbing, especially in California and Arizona. So how exactly is it getting across the border? Our analysis, our intelligence continues to point to most of us being smuggled at the ports of entry. Troy Miller is the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Close to 90 percent of fentanyl is seized at ports of entry. And immigration authorities say fentanyl is smuggled mostly by U.S. citizens and other travelers who are legally authorized to cross. Virtually none is seized from migrants who are seeking asylum. But the way fentanyl enters the country has become the subject of intense political debate.

The video cameras on the border show the cartel members in camouflage outfits wearing backpacks full of fentanyl pouring into our country. That's Republican Mark Green of Tennessee, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. As overdose deaths rise, smuggling has become a bigger issue to those in Washington, where some leading voices in the Republican Party reject the official narrative that fentanyl is mostly coming through ports of entry. You see, many of them believe that there is a lot more fentanyl that's just not being caught because Border Patrol agents are distracted by dealing with migrants crossing the border.

Here's Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana. There's a tremendous amount of illicit fentanyl and meth crossing between the ports of entry. Now, it is true that Border Patrol does catch some fentanyl smuggled between the ports. John Modlin, chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, testified at a congressional hearing back in February. Last year, we seized about 700 pounds of fentanyl. That was encountered, 52% of that, so the majority of that was encountered in the field. So that is predominantly being backpacked across the border. That 700 pounds of fentanyl is just a fraction of the 10,000 pounds that were seized in Ogalis and other ports in Arizona.

So consider this. As politicians actively debate how fentanyl and other illicit drugs are coming across the southern border, what's rarely heard are the voices of the people who are doing the actual smuggling, largely U.S. citizens. Coming up, we're going to hear from one of them. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Wednesday, August 9th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. IU makes bold investments in the future of bioscience and cybersecurity, cultivates visionary work in the arts and humanities, and prepares students to become global citizens

by teaching more languages than any other university in the country. Indiana University. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. It's Consider This from NPR. Haley says she had never done anything like this before. I'm very embarrassed about it, I guess you could say. One night,

she was hanging out with a guy she knew, and he asked her if she wanted to make some extra money. And she said, yeah. I'm very, like, ashamed that I didn't know better with carrying it over. Haley is 32 years old, and she asked NPR not to use her last name because she wants to protect her three children. In a way, that's what led her to this unfamiliar territory, her children. She was trying to make money to pay her bills so she could regain custody of her kids. And an offer of $500? Well, it seemed like a lot of money to her. That was the first time I've ever done it. I guess because when you're on drugs, your mind's not fully there. You're not fully thinking. You're just like, OK, I can get this over with and get

my bills paid, you know? At the time, Haley was smoking methamphetamine. She had been addicted to meth once before and got sober, but she relapsed after a bad breakup. This was during the COVID pandemic in 2021. Haley was struggling to find work in Tucson, Arizona, where she lived. So she agreed to drive to Mexico and come back with a bag of pills hidden inside her body. It was fentanyl.

I did carry a thousand pills. It was inside of a condom. NPR's Joel Rose tells us more about couriers like Haley. Prosecutors and defense lawyers both told me that Haley's story is typical, in the sense that the vast majority of illicit fentanyl, close to 90 percent, is seized at ports of entry. Immigration authorities say nearly all of that is smuggled by people who are legally authorized to cross, more than half by U.S. citizens like Haley. Virtually none is smuggled

by migrants seeking asylum. Sometimes fentanyl is hidden in tractor trailers carrying loads of legitimate cargo, but more often it's hidden in passenger cars or on the bodies of pedestrians. There's a popular misconception that it is these giant, giant seizures that are driving the numbers, and that's not it. Adam Gordon is a federal prosecutor in San Diego, one of the busiest smuggling points for fentanyl on the U.S.-Mexico border. The cases that we see every day are individuals who have five kilos of fentanyl and 10 kilos of methamphetamine.

And those cases are happening constantly. Gordon says drug cartels routinely recruit couriers or mules to get their products across the border, and they're sophisticated about who they target for the job. Michael Humphreys is the port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Nogales, Arizona, the same port where Haley tried to cross back from Mexico. They're looking for somebody we're not going to pay a lot of attention to. They target certain people and they offer money to drive through. I've been at this for over 36 years and it's been like that forever.

I've seen 20-year-old couriers. I've seen 60-year-old couriers. It's impossible to generalize. Stephanie Hepford is an assistant U.S. attorney in Tucson who has prosecuted dozens of smuggling cases. The cartels are smart. They're going to pick couriers that they think are going to be more successful at that point in time. Maybe a middle-aged female is going to be a better option than a 20-year-old male. Law enforcement officials say the ideal candidate is someone who has legal permission to cross the border and goes back and forth a lot because they won't attract attention from customs officers at the port. In that sense, Haley was not a good candidate.

I don't go to Mexico. That's not something I do. So yeah, they knew something was up. The officer asked Haley what she was doing in Mexico. Because this is your first time coming back into the United States, we need to secondary you. And I already knew, you know, I was caught. It was done. In my heart, I knew that I was doing wrong, you know? So I started freaking out and I kind of told on myself. Haley confessed. She was arrested and charged. She pleaded guilty and went to prison. That's when she met lots of women who had carried drugs through the ports, some of them repeatedly. I've heard girls talk about, you know, I did it. I had it inside of me. And I'm just like, aren't you lucky? Like, you know, I got caught my first time. People do it over and over again because the money is so good.

Law enforcement officials say there is no shortage of people who are willing to do this work. Again, Adam Gordon, the prosecutor in San Diego. Usually they're in very desperate straits. These are individuals who are not wealthy, typically, who are usually not being paid very much. Think of anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 to drive a vehicle across. A lot of it is driven, unfortunately, by addiction. Typically, my clients have hit rock bottom. Jessica Turk is a defense lawyer outside Tucson. She takes on clients who can't afford a private lawyer, mostly drug smuggling and human smuggling cases. Turk says many of her clients are struggling with addiction. Their drug addiction has put them on the street, or they're living in a shed,

or they're living in a car. They need money to fuel an addiction. And this is an opportunity that regularly presents itself to people in this area. When couriers get caught at the border, it's often their first serious criminal offense. That was the case for Haley. She cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence and served six months in prison.

But the hardest part, she says, was losing custody of her children. That one decision that I had made to carry, my ex-sister-in-law had to adopt my kids because I got sentenced and I was in jail. Yeah, that was hard. Haley has been sober now for 18 months. She has a job, just bought a car, and she gets to see her kids again, though she says it's been hard trying to rebuild their trust. Six months ago from today, I could tell you my kids didn't really want to be around me. They didn't want to spend the night with me. Today, they're always like,

mom, can we spend another night with you? Mom. Haley says things could have gone a lot worse, considering how much fentanyl she was carrying inside her body. That's a lot of pills. I mean, it's enough to kill a thousand people, right? It was scary. If they would have opened inside of me, I'd be dead. You know, it's a very scary thought. So it's thoughts I don't like to think about a lot, you know? In hindsight, Haley says getting caught at the border on her first attempt was actually good luck. That was NPR correspondent Joel Rose. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.