Of particular note was the pervasive presence of cocaine in the sampling.
Health Secretary Patrick Allen
Officials had expected to find fentanyl and other opioids but were surprised when they tested nearly 40 Albuquerque high schools and found cocaine use at 82% of them.
According to newly released data from the state, of samples collected from 38 schools, 31 of them tested positive for cocaine and its metabolite. Fentanyl and its metabolite were found in nearly a quarter of the 38 schools. The state also tested for heroin but found no trace in any of the samples.
“Of particular note was the pervasive presence of cocaine in the sampling,” said Health Secretary Patrick Allen. “That’s one area where we can improve communications with students right now as parents, school leaders and public health experts. On the other hand, it’s clear that prevention efforts work: heroin was not detected in any of the schools so far.”
However, officials warn people to compare results cautiously as the data has limitations. For instance, the data cannot tell who is using the drugs as the samples include everyone who used the bathroom on the day it was taken, including teachers, staff, students, and visitors.
“Knowledge is power, and having more data about the presence of illicit substances in schools informs our collaborative efforts at the school, community, and government levels,” Grisham said.
As of last week, the state announced nearly 90 schools have been tested statewide, and testing will continue with data being released weekly.
Biden and Xi discuss AI, fentanyl, pandas amid heightened tensions
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping convened in San Francisco on Nov. 15 to discuss — among other things — artificial intelligence. Contrary to a South China Morning Post report suggesting a potential pledge to ban AI in nuclear weapon control and deployment, the leaders opted to continue dialogue on the risks of advanced AI systems and enhancing safety.
“The United States will continue to compete vigorously with the PRC, but will manage that competition responsibly so it doesn’t veer into conflict or accidental conflict,” Biden said.
Last month, the Biden administration heightened restrictions on U.S. companies selling sophisticated semiconductor chips to China, citing national security concerns. The tightened regulations affect not only military applications, but also commercial usage, impacting Chinese companies that are engaged in artificial intelligence projects.
Although diplomatic channels have remained open, military communications were halted following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August.
“We’re resuming military-to-military contact, direct contacts,” Biden said in a press conference. “As a lot of you know who follow this, that’s been cut off and it’s been very worrisome. That’s how accidents happen, misunderstandings. So we’re back to direct, open, clear, direct communications.”
“China never bets against the U.S., never interferes in its internal affairs,” Xi said. “China has no intention to challenge or to replace the U.S. Instead, we are glad to see a confident, open, and prosperous U.S. Likewise, the U.S. should not bet against China. The U.S. should not interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
During the meeting, leaders reached an agreement to address the production and trafficking of drugs like fentanyl. Additionally, Xi indicated he intends to send new pandas to the United States following the return of three pandas to China earlier this month.
Record number of migrant encounters at US border; second year to top 2 million
Recent figures from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) paint a concerning picture of the situation at the southern border. In September, there were a record-breaking 270,000 migrant encounters, contributing to a total of 2.47 million encounters for fiscal year 2023.
This marks the second consecutive year with encounters surpassing 2 million.
Governmental response
CBP is responding to this surge by increasing resources and personnel along the southwest border. The agency is working closely with both domestic and international partners to address this unprecedented challenge.
Source: AP Images.
Acting Commissioner Troy A. Miller emphasized the agency’s commitment to vigilance and adapting operations while enforcing U.S. immigration laws.
“DHS has removed or returned more individual family members in the last four months than in any previous full fiscal year.” Miller said. “In September 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded 218,763 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border.”
Mexico’s Palenque summit
During a time when nations are divided over handling the migration of millions of people through Central America and South America, Mexico recently hosted a dialogue with 12 other nations in Palenque, Mexico, a significant entry point for migrants arriving from Guatemala.
Leaders at the summit represented Latin American and Caribbean countries contributing to the record migrant flow. Many of these nations are grappling with the overwhelming number of people crossing their borders.
The discussions focused on the factors driving human mobility, including poverty, inequality, job scarcity, and the impact of climate change.
(Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mexico)
Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena pointed out the substantial numbers of migrants coming from countries like Venezuela, Guatemala and Honduras, stressing the need to address the root causes.
“In the month of September alone, 35,000 migrants came from Guatemala, 27,000 came from Honduras and so on,” Bárcena said. “So, the countries that we are inviting to the Summit or the Palenque Meeting are precisely the countries that are sending this number of migrants to Mexico and the United States, because we have to sit down and look at the root causes at this moment, if we have per month the arrival of 60,000 Venezuelans, since it is impossible for us to do good management.”
Source: AP Images.
Experts suggest that Mexico’s intent is to demonstrate solidarity with Latin American nations, prioritizing regional alignment over U.S. interests.
One-of-a-kind summit
Back in the United States, the Biden administration is preparing to host a similar summit in early November. A senior White House official noted that the summit’s objective is to address the root causes of irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere.
President Biden has also requested $6 billion to strengthen resources at the overwhelmed southern border.
In a press call, the White House stated that the funds provide the necessary resources for law enforcement personnel to maintain security at the southwest border and curb the trafficking of fentanyl into the United States. This funding encompasses:
An allocation for an additional 1,300 Border Patrol agents.
Funding for 375 immigration judge teams.
Provision for 1,600 asylum officers.
Acquisition of over 100 advanced detection machines to enhance fentanyl detection at southwest border ports of entry.
Deployment of an additional 1,000 law enforcement personnel and investigative capabilities to deter cartels from smuggling fentanyl into the country.
Sinaloa cartel tells its fentanyl producers to stop making opioid or be killed: report
The Sinaloa cartel is ordering its members to stop fentanyl production and trafficking in response to increasing U.S. pressure. Non-compliance with this directive carries grave consequences, including abduction or death, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Led by El Chapo’s sons, the Sinaloa cartel issued this order to ease U.S. authorities’ ongoing scrutiny. They appear resolute in enforcing their threats.
Prosecutors revealed in a recent indictment that while Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán serves a life sentence, his sons have steered the family business into fentanyl, establishing a network of labs churning out massive quantities of the cheap, deadly drug that they smuggle into the U.S. Source: AP Images.
“The Chapitos have to maintain a reputation, so they’re much more violent than their father was, because they have to show other members of the cartel that they have a reputation where they’re going to take violent action if they have to,” said Mike Vigil, former head of the DEA’s international operations.
The Chapitos expect this move to redirect U.S. attention to their main rival, the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG). CJNG is another significant fentanyl producer and distributor. Both cartels have long been on the radar of U.S. authorities.
“We know who is responsible. The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco (CJNG) Cartel, both cartels in Mexico, are responsible for the vast majority of fentanyl that is coming into the U.S.,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said.
Despite this move by the Chapitos, U.S. officials remain skeptical about its lasting impact. One official even stated: “In the aggregate, it won’t mean anything.”
Fentanyl continues to drive a growing public health crisis. This highly potent synthetic opioid is a deadly threat. There are over 100,000 overdose deaths in the United States each year, and nearly two-thirds of them are linked to fentanyl.
Mexico extradited Guzman Lopez, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the United States on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, to face drug trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Source: AP Images.
Washington has already taken notice of this crisis. This year, Mexican security forces apprehended a leader of the Chapitos and extradited him to the United States. Additionally, in October, the Biden administration announced a series of indictments against eight Chinese companies accused of importing the chemicals used in fentanyl production.
“And we know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
To date, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has seized more than 25,000 pounds of fentanyl for the fiscal year 2023, a 10,000-pound increase from the previous year.
Mexican cartels expand drug trade to Alaska, increasing deaths
Law enforcement authorities recently arrested a drug kingpin as a part of a transnational investigation into organized crime, as Mexican drug cartels expand into Alaska. Miguel Guevara claimed ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. What sets his case apart is not the charges, but the location of his arrest.
“People target Alaska because of the economic impact,” FBI Special Agent Brandon Waddle said. “It’s truly supply and demand. It is economics in its purest sense, and by that, I mean where there’s less supply, you can make more money. So here in Alaska, where there’s less supply, drug organizations or criminal organizations can charge more money for their product.”
Getty Images
“What keeps me up at night is the fact that fentanyl is killing our small communities,” Waddle added.
Alaska faces distinct challenges in combating drug addiction, deaths and related crime because of its remote location and dispersed population.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Klugman, who has prosecuted similar cases in Alaska, said, “Cargo and passenger routes that are operating under very little scrutiny in rural Alaska, that’s absolutely a channel of how drugs are being moved and distributed. And then, as you get to more rural parts of the state, you have many, many small villages that aren’t accessible by road, that you can only reach by air or boat.”
It’s an issue the Biden administration is focusing on as part of a years-long push to stem the rampant importation of fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.
Attorney General Merrick Garland (AP Images)
Meanwhile, naloxone kits, also known as Narcan, are available at many pharmacies and through most states’ health departments. Last year, Alaska received over $2.7 million in funding to prevent overdose deaths.
Mexico busing migrants north despite vow to help US alleviate border crisis
Near Mexico’s southern border, hundreds of families wait for buses headed north to Mexico City. It’s just one stop on a nearly 1,800-mile migration into the United States.
This is a new stop. Buses are available for $80 a ticket to families who may or may not have appointments with immigration officials.
Mexican officials opened the site last month hoping to reduce the risks migrants face traveling north. However, the move appears to be having deadly consequences.
The most recent bus crash killed at least 16 Venezuelan and Haitian migrants. It departed from an immigration center in southern Mexico. The move is also in direct opposition to recent agreements with the U.S.
A crashed bus sits attached to a tow truck the side of the road near Villa de Tepelmeme, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. At least 16 migrants from Venezuela and Peru died early Friday in the bus crash, authorities said. Source: AP Images.
“Almost all of them pass through Mexico, and we must take care of migrants and protect them, but we must avoid an increase in the migrant flux because there is a risk,” Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
The Mexican government’s migration authority said it has deployed over 260 buses and vans to disperse over 8,000 migrants from the southern city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, to other parts of the country.
Mexican authorities had promised to help deport certain migrants to their countries of origin, not help them seek asylum.
“We will continue to take strong actions and measures, including efforts already in place about assisted returns, coordinating the dismantlement of trafficking, human trafficking network,” Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alicia Bárcena Ibarra said at a joint press conference.
Bárcena Ibarra added that Mexico receives about 6,000 migrants daily at its southern border, with 1,500 crossing the Darien gap from Colombia, and more than 8,000 people arriving at the country’s northern border daily.
In a statement, Mexico’s National Migration Institute didn’t specify when the deportations would begin or how long they would last. Instead, it emphasized its intention to initiate negotiations with neighboring countries to ensure the orderly repatriation of its citizens to their respective countries.
The institute added from January to September 2023, federal immigration agents have rescued over 1.4 million migrants. More than 788,089 of them have been returned to their countries.
Government officials take action
This move has sparked action by senior government officials from both countries to congregate during the third U.S.-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue — a chance for officials to promote binational safety and security.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will join Mexican government counterparts. It’s a joint meeting of the U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities.
“For our part, the United States is increasing refugee resettlement and we’re expanding legal pathways,” Blinken said. “Including launching our Safe Mobility initiative, so that people can find out whether they’re eligible to come to the United States from their own countries without having to make the journey to our borders.”
Since 2008, under the framework, $3 billion in aid has been allocated to Mexico. The aid addresses issues related to transnational organized crime and human trafficking.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), this initiative encompasses various major U.S. contributions, including personnel training and checkpoint equipment aimed at addressing Mexico’s security challenges.
Other programs have focused on providing training and assistance to Mexican officials from the justice sector, border security, military and law enforcement. Mexico has 54 migration stations throughout its 32 states.
Source: Reuters.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) representatives have offered Mexican authorities assistance to address the immigration issue at airports and train stations to reduce the numbers of people who use these routes.
U.S. relations with Mexico
The growing relationship relies on Mexico to help manage cross-border crime and migrant smuggling, while Mexico relies on the U.S. to mitigate the flow of firearms into Mexico and decrease U.S. demand for drugs.
Despite ongoing security assistance, safety in Mexico has significantly worsened over the last 15 years. The United Nations says between 2007 and 2021, the homicide rate in Mexico more than tripled. Deaths rose from eight homicides to 28 per 100,000 people.
According to Mexico, fentanyl seizures have topped nearly 25% of the world’s supply. Simultaneously, more than 200,000 firearms enter Mexico every year in return.
Actions taken by U.S. government
The Department of Homeland Security has announced executive actions allowing border wall construction to continue in southern Texas to mitigate the migration surge.
In addition, DHS has expanded the Family Expedited Removal Management (FERM) program. The program expidites the removal of families without a lawful basis to remain. Families are placed into expedited removal proceedings to occur within 30 days. Launched in May, this program has processed over 1,600 families and continues to scale up.
The charges include crimes related to the production, distribution and importation of fentanyl, synthetic opioids, methamphetamine and their precursor chemicals.
“We know this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference Tuesday. “Our agents and prosecutors are working every day to get fentanyl out of our communities and bring to justice those who put it there.”
The China-based chemical companies are accused of creating a fentanyl global supply chain by manufacturing chemicals to make the drug and then shipping the fentanyl precursor chemicals in mislabeled packages, hoping their products would go undetected.
Drug cartels and traffickers then combine the chemicals and smuggle the drugs into the United States and Mexico. In April, the DOJ announced indictments against 23 Sinaloa cartel members, associates and leaders for their roles in running “the largest and most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world.”
“And it’s included in the department’s first ever charges against chemical companies based in China for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals directly into the United States,” Garland said.
None of the suspects in China have been arrested. Garland said all have been sanctioned and that he has every intention to bring the defendants to justice in the United States.
Illegal immigration surges in Arizona despite heat wave
Illegal border crossings in one of the hottest, most isolated and dangerous areas of Arizona have increased 134% in recent days. According to a CBS News report, Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector have seen an average of 1,900 migrants arrive every day, compared to 812 arriving per day in June.
The Tucson sector covers most of Arizona, from the state line with New Mexico to Yuma County. It includes a large area of the Sonoran Desert, which extends into California.
According to the Straight Arrow News Media Landscape™ tool, CBS News leans left, while Fox leans right. Here’s how those outlets are covering this issue:
CBS reported, “Migrants, including families with young children, have been traversing the Arizona desert in large groups — generally an indication of the involvement of smugglers — amid extreme and dangerous temperatures that surpass 110 degrees each day in most areas of the region.”
The CBS report also said large family groups are arriving from around the world, including China, Senegal, Mauritania, Colombia and Venezuela. Those crossings are mainly taking place in the middle of the night when temperatures drop below 90 degrees.
Fox cited Tucson sector Chief John Modlin who said agents apprehended 10,000 people during the last week of July. That is a 1,000-person increase from the week before.
Fox also reported on drug apprehensions, a focus of Republican members of Congress when they debate immigration policy.
Fox said agents at the Nogales Border Patrol station confiscated fentanyl with an $83,000 value, six pounds of meth and three firearms. Fox also said more than 400 illegal migrants were reportedly rescued by Border Patrol agents.
Both outlets shared warnings from the Border Patrol and local immigrant support groups about how dangerous it is to cross the desert in the summer months. According to Customs and Border Protection, agents have performed more than 25,000 search and rescues along the southwest border since October 2022.
Straight Arrow News strives to provide unbiased, fact-based news in addition to offering a comprehensive look at how the media is covering stories that matter most. Learn more about the Media Miss™ tool and decide for yourself.
UN report highlights rise in global cocaine use, production
A recent report by the United Nations has revealed that the consumption and production of cocaine worldwide is reaching new record highs. The study indicates that approximately 22 million individuals globally used cocaine in 2021, and authorities anticipate this number to continue increasing.
“The world is currently experiencing a prolonged surge in both supply and demand of cocaine, which is now being felt across the globe and is likely to spur the development of new markets beyond the traditional confines,” the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its annual World Drug Report.
The cultivation of coca bushes and the overall production of cocaine also reached unprecedented levels, with Americas experiencing some of the highest concentrations in the global market. Additionally, the report indicated that North America leads the world in the total number of residents injecting drugs, coinciding with a surge in synthetic substances like fentanyl and methamphetamine. In 2021, more than 13 million people worldwide engaged in drug injection, an 18% increase compared to previous estimates.
Drug trafficking has also escalated in regions such as West Africa and the Middle East. Afghanistan, already responsible for 80% of the world’s heroin-linked opium poppy supply, has emerged as a new leading producer of illicit stimulants like methamphetamine — a concerning development for the nation.
“Questions remain regarding the linkages between illegal manufacture of heroin and of methamphetamine (in Afghanistan) and whether the two markets will develop in parallel or whether one will substitute the other,” the UNODC report said.
Overall, global drug users have increased by 23%, and drug-related disorders have risen by 45% over the past decade. Despite this alarming trend, the United Nations report highlights the scarcity of treatment options available to users, with only one in five people having access to professional help.
Colombia seizes largest recorded narco-submarine carrying massive cocaine haul
Colombia’s navy successfully intercepted the largest narco-submarine ever seized in the country since data started being recorded in 1993. Measuring 100 feet in length and 10 feet in width, the submarine was found to be carrying three tons of cocaine with an estimated street value exceeding $100 million.
Colombia has long been recognized as the world’s largest producer of cocaine, fueling the global drug trade, as the United States stands as the largest consumer of cocaine worldwide. It is against this backdrop that the submarine was apprehended in the Pacific Ocean, en route to Central America, which is a common transit route for drug smuggling to the U.S.
Law enforcement authorities apprehended three crew members who were operating the narco-submarine. If convicted, these individuals could face up to 14 years in prison, underscoring the severity of penalties imposed on drug traffickers in Colombia.
The detained crew are all Colombians and claimed to have been “forced by a drug trafficking organization” to take the sub to Central America, per a statement released by the navy.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, cocaine ranks as the second most trafficked drug into the U.S., following methamphetamine. While authorities continue to confront cocaine smuggling, they have also prioritized their efforts in cracking down on fentanyl smuggling across the U.S. border. In 2022, the DEA announced fentanyl seizures had more than doubled from the year prior, highlighting the growing problem posed by this powerful synthetic opioid.
