California National Guard seizes millions of dollars worth of fentanyl in single month

The California National Guard’s (Cal Guard) Counterdrug Task Force seized an estimated $3.8 million worth of fentanyl in August at the state’s ports of entry, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.

Cal Guard has confiscated over 772,000 pills containing fentanyl in August, totaling 9.6 million pills and 5,000 pounds of fentanyl powder since January, according to the press release. The total seizures amount to over $43 million in estimated street value.

“Each month, the California National Guard continues the life-saving work of supporting local, state, and federal agencies in keeping dangerous and illicit drugs out of our communities,” Newsom said in the announcement. “I thank Cal Guard for making our neighborhoods safer.”

California witnessed nearly 7,000 fentanyl-related overdose deaths from 2006 to 2023, a number that rose 121% between 2019 and 2021, according to the California Department of Public Health. In June, Newsom more than doubled Cal Guard service members stationed at the state’s ports of entry to combat the growing fentanyl crisis, increasing the number of guards from 155 to nearly 400, according to a press release.

Chinese suppliers have made it easier to obtain the ingredients to produce fentanyl in the U.S., a July report revealed. Newsom met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials in October 2023 to discuss combatting the transnational shipping of precursor chemicals from China to the U.S.

Border officials seized over 26,700 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border in 2023, a 480% increase from 2020, according to a report released by the National Immigration Forum. The governor’s press release noted fentanyl is “primarily smuggled into the country” through entry ports by U.S. citizens.

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