Silver State Times

The Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels are utilizing the U.S. southern border to bring fentanyl into the country that analysts say is destroying lives in Nevada. 

NBC News 3 reports that in Nevada, overdose deaths rose by more than 20% last year. 

According to CDC data, the state saw at least 1,036 overdose deaths between October 2020 and October 2021. It is also reported that about two-thirds of those deaths involved synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, which are on the rise in Southern Nevada. 

Arrests are being reported throughout the state. Two weeks ago, a traffic stop north of Ely turned into a major drug bust. Fifty-six pounds of fentanyl were recovered – a quantity with an approximate value of $3.6 million, according to U.S. News. 

According to data released by the CDC, in Nevada alone, over 1,000 overdose deaths were reported from March 2021 to March 2022.

In an op-ed announcing legislation for harsher penalties for fentanyl traffickers, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said, “According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), cartels increasingly target children and young people. The most obvious instance of this trend is the pills of ‘rainbow fentanyl’ that the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are smuggling across the border, which law officers have seized in 18 states this month.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that heroin is roughly 30 times more expensive to produce than fentanyl. According to Bryce Pardo, the associate director of the Rand Corporation’s Drug Policy Research Center, heroin usually costs around $6,000 per kilogram to produce, while fentanyl can be as cheap as $200 per kilogram.

According to declassified DEA intelligence reports, the New Generation Jalisco and the Sinaloa cartels are the primary traffickers of fentanyl into the United States. These cartels dominate trafficking corridors at the southern border leading into Arizona and California.

According to a recent news release from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), nearly 4.9 million people have illegally crossed the border into America in the 18 months since President Joe Biden took office.

“The endless flow of illegal aliens and the incursion of lethal narcotics pouring across our border will not end until this administration demonstrates a willingness to enforce our laws,” President of FAIR Dan Stein said.

The FAIR statement goes on to point out that the drugs seized at the border represent only a fraction of what is actually trafficked into the U.S. – and in July alone, 469 million lethal doses of fentanyl were seized at the border.

The DEA reports that fentanyl is frequently and intentionally mixed in with other drugs like heroin or cocaine to increase its potency. Of course, blending these drugs together results in a much higher likelihood of an overdose – and without laboratory testing, it’s impossible to know how much of each drug is present.