The U.S. is not making any progress combating the flow of narcotics through its southern border, a former border patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent said in an interview that aired Friday on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
“We’re not even making a dent in it right now,” Jason Piccolo told hosts Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on Thursday. “Every little town in our country has someone who has a cocaine problem. How much narcotics have to come across our border to supply every little town in our country? And how much are we actually getting?”
He said that while there is the occasional seizure, it pales in comparison to the amount of narcotics that slip by.
“Once in a while, you’ll see on the news that Coast Guard popped a two-ton load of a vessel. That’s nothing compared to what’s coming across the border to actually supply everybody that demands the narcotics,” he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that 90 percent of heroin confiscated on the border, 80 percent of fentanyl, 87 percent of methamphetamine and 88 percent of cocaine was seized at ports of entry during the first 11 months of fiscal 2018.
President Trump is looking to block the flow of drugs through the U.S.-Mexico border, and has even threatened to shut down the border. He later backed off that threat and instead gave Mexico a one-year deadline to address drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
— Julia Manchester
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