Five attempts to smuggle fentanyl reported in a span of 7 days
EL PASO, Texas - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers thwarted five separate attempts to smuggle fentanyl into the United States.
CBP officers working at the Ysleta Port of Entry on Feb. 24 encountered a 31-year-old woman who concealed about less than half a pound of fentanyl. A drug sniffing dog alerted officers to the drugs.
On Feb. 28 at the Paso Del Norte bridge a drug sniffing dog alerted officers to a 42-year-old woman who was found attempting to smuggle a quarter of a pound fentanyl.
"This synthetic opioid is so powerful that if a package were to rupture inside the body, the consequences could be life threatening," CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations Hector A. Mancha said."
On March 2, three other women admitted to officers they were concealing drugs in their bodies and voluntarily removed the bundles. One of the women was a 19-year-old pregnant woman.
All five women are U.S. citizens and were processed accordingly.
"It is tragic that people are willing to put themselves in these dangerous situations," said Mancha.
Fentanyl is considered to be about 80 times more potent than morphine and hundreds of times more than heroin. Exposure can be fatal in some cases. It depresses the central nervous system and respiratory function according to the CDC.
