{"id":899014,"date":"2021-10-19T18:14:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T22:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=899014"},"modified":"2021-10-19T18:14:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T22:14:34","slug":"trafficked-how-joe-bidens-open-border-policies-have-fueled-americas-fentanyl-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trafficked-how-joe-bidens-open-border-policies-have-fueled-americas-fentanyl-epidemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Trafficked: How Joe Biden\u2019s Open Border Policies Have Fueled America\u2019s Fentanyl Epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrafficked-how-joe-bidens-open-border-policies-have-fueled-americas-fentanyl-epidemic%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=899014&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>May 10, 2021 began like any other afternoon for 15-year-old Michael Stabile. The freshman at Lake City High School in Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho \u2014 who had just been promoted at his after-school job at Pok\u00e9works restaurant \u2014 came home, greeted his parents, and \u201cwent to into his room and turned on his music like he normally does,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.khq.com\/find_it\/it-couldve-been-anybodys-child-coeur-dalene-family-grieves-following-15-year-old-boys-suspected\/article_5ae3b38c-b435-11eb-a92d-5f73734cc298.html\">according<\/a> to his sister, Kristin. But as evening drew on, his parents checked on him, only to find him passed out in his room, unresponsive. Though they administered CPR, they were unable to revive him. The teenager died of an overdose after taking one or more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/thursday-october-14th-2021\">counterfeit prescription pills<\/a> secretly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inlander.com\/spokane\/fentanyl-is-flooding-into-the-inland-northwest-triggering-a-deadlier-phase-of-the-opioid-crisis\/Content?oid=22421261\">laced<\/a> with fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p>While Stabile was irreplaceable, law enforcement made him part of a grim statistic: The teen was one of <a href=\"https:\/\/bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com\/montanarightnow.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/2\/a1\/2a1ab1b7-7a84-5b39-9a8b-dda8ed8a0733\/60a834ad3c233.pdf.pdf\">five people<\/a> to suffer a fatal overdose of fentanyl-contaminated pills in Kootenai County during an eight-day period.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could\u2019ve been anybody\u2019s child,\u201d warns Kristin. &nbsp;\u201cIt <em>can<\/em> be anyone\u2019s child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patricia Saldivar of Texas agrees. Her 22-year-old daughter, Cassandra, died during a party in June when she took what she thought was Percocet, but was in fact a counterfeit pill that contained a lethal amount of fentanyl. Patricia, who now must raise her two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, rented a billboard across from AT&amp;T Stadium in Arlington (the home of the Dallas Cowboys), with a picture of her daughter and the message, \u201c1 pill. That\u2019s all it took.\u201d Patricia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WCLuIaiaHKU\">said<\/a> she rented this memorial in a highly trafficked area because she\u2019s trying to \u201cspread awareness so that nobody has to go through the same thing I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Officials say it\u2019s impossible to overestimate the deadly impact of fentanyl, in any of its forms, on America\u2019s young people \u2014 and that lax border policies implemented by the Biden administration are reaping a deadly harvest nationwide.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fentanyl: the number-one killer of teenagers in some areas<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Too many young adults \u2014 and minors \u2014 are already suffering the same fate as Michael and Cassandra. \u201c[T]he group of people that it\u2019s hitting is the 16 to 24-year-old group because, again, it appears to be a safe drug, they think it\u2019s a pharmaceutical drug,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/border\/2021\/06\/30\/porous-border-causes-50-percent-spike-in-fentanyl-overdoses-texas-sheriff-tells-trump\/\">said<\/a> Tarrant County, Texas, Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn in June. Neighboring Arizona sees a similar pattern. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a figure of speech; this is reality: Fentanyl overdoses have replaced car accidents as the leading cause of death for people 19 and younger in Pima County,\u201d Arizona, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/fentanyl-top-cause-of-death-teenagers-arizona-border-county\">said<\/a> the state\u2019s governor, Doug Ducey (R),<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 10, 2021 began like any other afternoon for 15-year-old Michael Stabile. The freshman at Lake City High School in Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho \u2014 who had just been promoted at his after-school job at Pok\u00e9works restaurant \u2014 came home, greeted his parents, and \u201cwent to into his room and turned on his music like he normally does,\u201d according to his sister, Kristin. But as evening drew on, his parents checked on him, only to find him passed out in his room, unresponsive. Though they administered CPR, they were unable to revive him. The teenager died of an overdose after taking one or more counterfeit prescription pills secretly laced with fentanyl.While Stabile was irreplaceable, law enforcement made him part of a grim statistic: The teen was one of five people to suffer a fatal overdose of fentanyl-contaminated pills in Kootenai County during an eight-day period.\u201cIt could\u2019ve been anybody\u2019s child,\u201d warns Kristin. \u00a0\u201cIt can be anyone\u2019s child.\u201dPatricia Saldivar of Texas agrees. Her 22-year-old daughter, Cassandra, died during a party in June when she took what she thought was Percocet, but was in fact a counterfeit pill that contained a lethal amount of fentanyl. Patricia, who now must raise her two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, rented a billboard across from AT&#038;T Stadium in Arlington (the home of the Dallas Cowboys), with a picture of her daughter and the message, \u201c1 pill. That\u2019s all it took.\u201d Patricia said she rented this memorial in a highly trafficked area because she\u2019s trying to \u201cspread awareness so that nobody has to go through the same thing I did.\u201dOfficials say it\u2019s impossible to overestimate the deadly impact of fentanyl, in any of its forms, on America\u2019s young people \u2014 and that lax border policies implemented by the Biden administration are reaping a deadly harvest nationwide.Fentanyl: the number-one killer of teenagers in some areasToo many young adults \u2014 and minors \u2014 are already suffering the same fate as Michael and Cassandra. \u201c[T]he group of people that it\u2019s hitting is the 16 to 24-year-old group because, again, it appears to be a safe drug, they think it\u2019s a pharmaceutical drug,\u201d said Tarrant County, Texas, Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn in June. Neighboring Arizona sees a similar pattern. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a figure of speech; this is reality: Fentanyl overdoses have replaced car accidents as the leading cause of death for people 19 and younger in Pima County,\u201d Arizona, said the state\u2019s governor, Doug Ducey (R), during a press conference with other Republican governors in Mission, Texas, on October 6. \u201cPima County deputy sheriffs are responding to a call involving fentanyl every 40 hours.\u201dYet, as Stabile\u2019s case proves, the problem is far from confined to America\u2019s southwest border. Opioids caused about three-quarters of the nation\u2019s 93,000 overdose deaths last year, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Fentanyl, which is 80-100 times stronger than morphine, has become law enforcement\u2019s greatest narcotics concern.The DEA took the unusual step of issuing a public warning last month as it saw the number of imitation prescription pills exploding nationwide. Federal officials say they seized more than\u00a09.5 million\u00a0fentanyl-laced pills designed to look like such prescription drugs as Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, Adderall, and Xanax \u2014 and 40% of those contained a potentially lethal overdose amount of fentanyl. Agents took another 1.8 million pills off the streets in August and September, enough to kill 700,000 people.As America\u2019s border crisis has intensified since January 20, so has the counterfeit prescription crisis. It takes only two milligrams of fentanyl to cause an overdose \u2014 enough to fit on the tip of a pencil \u2014 and the DEA reports, \u201cApproximately 666,666 counterfeit pills can be manufactured from 1 kilogram of pure fentanyl.\u201d Every pound of fentanyl could kill almost 227,000 people. Border Patrol agents have seized 10,469 pounds of fentanyl this fiscal year, a nearly five-fold increase from 2019 levels, according to statistics made available by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.For instance, Arizona\u2019s Pinal County reported intercepting zero counterfeit pills in 2018 but has seized 1.1 million this year \u2014 and counting.\u00a0The supply has inflated to the point that the price of fake pills has plunged from $50 a gram to $20 a gram, according to Sheriff Waybourn.Law enforcement officials say an elaborate criminal enterprise stretching across the globe fuels America\u2019s overdose issue.The criminal connection: How China, Mexico, and international drug traffickers do itThe transnational criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl into the U.S. body politic partner with suppliers half a world away. It begins in China, which remains \u201cthe main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States,\u201d according to a DEA report released last January. Mexican traffickers import fentanyl, which has a 90% purity level, or the components necessary to produce the deadly opioid from China or India. Pure fentanyl is trafficked across the border, but cartels have found selling imitation prescriptions is even easier \u2014 and more profitable. They operate pill mills that make convincing-looking prescription drugs, add a dab of fentanyl, and sell them online to unwitting consumers. \u201cTraffickers can typically purchase a kilogram of fentanyl powder for a few thousand dollars from a Chinese supplier, transform it into hundreds of thousands of pills, and sell the counterfeit pills for millions of dollars in profit,\u201d said the DEA. Consumers who are not killed finds themselves with an unshakable addiction to one of the world\u2019s most addictive substances \u2026 and become the cartels\u2019 repeat customers.Many of the organizations that operate these networks also oversee the human trafficking of illegal aliens into the United States. \u201cDEA reporting continues to indicate the Sinaloa and the New Generation Jalisco (Ca\u0301rtel de Jalisco Nueva Generacio\u0301n or CJNG) cartels are likely the primary trafficking groups responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the United States from Mexico,\u201d the DEA reported. These transnational criminal organizations \u201care known to control the trafficking corridors in Mexico that connect to California and Arizona, indicating drugs passing through these associated areas would need to be approved by these organizations.\u201dTo combat addiction and overdose, law enforcement must focus on the source, police officers say. \u201c[T]he drug cartels in Mexico should be the number one enemy of American law enforcement, plain and simple,\u201d said Sheriff Waybourn. \u201cWe need to draw a line and protect our children.\u201d His cry is echoed by federal officials like Houston DEA Special Agent Daniel Comeaux, who told\u00a0the Daily Caller that \u201ceveryone needs to understand drug cartels are vicious, they\u2019re violent and it\u2019s all about the dollar bill. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s 2021 or 2020 or 2016, drug cartels are going to get their drugs across our border.\u201d Officials from the other side of the country confirm Comeaux\u2019s analysis. \u201cFrom 2020 to 2021, the Idaho State Police Forensic Lab has seen more than a 562% increase in the amount of fentanyl,\u201d Idaho Police Sergeant Curt Sproat told KMVT-TV.\u201cMeth and fentanyl are the most serious growing drug threats in Idaho,\u201d said Idaho Governor Brad Little (R). \u201cAnd there is a direct tie to the loose border with Mexico.\u201d Governor Little said Idaho\u2019s growing fentanyl problem only made him more certain of his recent decision to send five Idaho State Police troopers to help enforce immigration law at the Southern border.The Biden administration needs to do the same, he said.The solution: Fixing America\u2019s porous borderThe U.S. border with Mexico has devolved into a full-blown crisis since President Biden took office. Border Patrol agents have encountered 1,741,956 illegal immigrants since last October 1 \u2014 the largest number in U.S. history \u2014 and that does not include those who evaded detection. An unenforced border invites criminal activity, including drug-running, officials say. \u201cJust think about how many drugs are slipping through the cracks, and slipping into the bloodstreams, in our communities,\u201d said Governor Ducey.\u201cWe have these porous borders. These [drug] cartels figure out \u2026 not only how to get into Texas, California and Arizona, but all across the country and build up networks,\u201d former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo\u00a0told\u00a0conservative talk radio host John Catsimatidis on\u00a0October 3. Local law enforcement find themselves \u201cunder enormous pressure because of the drugs.\u201dTired of that pressure, 26 Republican governors have released a 10-point plan to secure the Southern border and stanch the flow of deadly opioids into American communities. Their border blueprint includes everything from measures no Democratic administration would ever embrace \u2014 such as finishing President Donald Trump\u2019s border wall, deporting all criminal aliens, and notifying the communities where the Biden administration resettles illegal aliens \u2014 to other measures pragmatic Democrats could easily enact, such as increasing the number of officers at the border and reinstating Trump-era agreements with nations in the Northern Triangle to stop the flow of illegal immigration before it reaches the United States. So far, the Biden administration has willingly implemented only one of these proposals: a provision known as Title 42, which allow agents to remove illegal immigrants who may pose a public health threat. A court has also ordered the administration to reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the \u201cstay in Mexico\u201d policy; Biden administration officials say they will appeal the ruling.All parties, including some members of the Biden administration, acknowledge that the situation at the border is unsustainable and lacks public support. Polls show that only 23% of Americans approve of the way the administration is handling the border. Governor Little said he and his fellow governors have told the Biden administration point-blank \u201cwhat you\u2019ve been doing for the last six months, eight months, has not been working.\u201d Americans are losing their lives due to lax border enforcement aimed at pleasing the president\u2019s hard-Left base.\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do something different,\u201d he said.The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}