PRESIDIO — Last month, the office of the Fiscalía General del Estado de Chihuahua (State of Chihuahua Attorney General) launched a campaign with the slogan “Despierta: fentanilo está cerca” (“Wake up: fentanyl is close”). State officials sounded the alarm after over 430 million fentanyl pills were seized by police in 15 months, mainly concentrated along the border in Ciudad Juárez.
Information about fentanyl flooded TV and radio stations across the border state — including in Ojinaga. Before the end of last year, there was little reason for Presidio-Ojinaga locals to be concerned about the powerful narcotic, an opioid 100 times stronger than morphine. “Fentanilo mata — no te riesgas,” one ad broadcast hourly Ojinaga’s La Poderosa implores. “Fentanyl kills — don’t risk it.”
But the drug has now surfaced in Presidio County, albeit in smaller quantities than in seizures farther west. On November 23, a driver on the Presidio International Bridge was flagged by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A secondary investigation revealed 32 pounds of methamphetamine and two pounds of fentanyl — marking the first time that fentanyl was recovered by local authorities.
On January 12, CBP personnel at the Presidio Port of Entry pulled another vehicle into secondary for a search that would yield 15.43 pounds of fentanyl — once again transported alongside a shipment of methamphetamine.
“This is a sizable amount of two very dangerous drugs that will not reach their intended destination,” said Acting Port Director Ronnie Raulston.
Back in October, when Presidio County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Joel Nuñez gave a presentation at Presidio High School for concerned parents, the drug’s appearance in the county was purely hypothetical. He offered information about warning signs of narcotics abuse, but also stressed that fentanyl had not yet entered the local supply. “We have not had any cases here, but it’s very close,” he said. The port’s first fentanyl bust occurred a few weeks later.
The Presidio Port of Entry has only just begun tracking data, but trends at other ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border show alarming increases in the quantity of fentanyl seized. Over the past two fiscal years, the amount of seized fentanyl has doubled. CBP estimates that seizures will surpass last year’s count by April.
Fentanyl was originally formulated as a palliative drug, but has since flooded the black market as a cheaper, lab-produced alternative to drugs like heroin. Many people who sell fentanyl or overdose on fentanyl aren’t aware they’re doing so — an LA Times investigation revealed that many border town pharmacies selling opioids under the counter were actually selling knockoffs laced with the drug.
In bigger American cities, the prevalence of fentanyl in street narcotics has spiraled into a full-blown epidemic. In Nashville, 79% of forensic toxicology reports conducted after overdose deaths reflected the presence of fentanyl; in New Orleans, that number was 95%.
Fentanyl is the agency’s most-frequently seized synthetic opioid. Last year, 31 fentanyl “analogues” were also detected — meaning that there are more attempts than ever before to reproduce the drug’s effects in impromptu labs.
The bulk of CBP’s fentanyl busts are initially discovered by canines — in fiscal year 2022, canine teams detected 10,736 pounds of fentanyl at the border. Suspected shipments are then sampled and tested to determine their precise makeup. Staff at the Presidio Port of Entry use a “presumptive testing glove box” — a clear plexiglass cage with built-in gloves that staff can use to test substances safely.
Facility protocol dictates that the “glove box” be used outside in a ventilated area with Narcan on hand. The policy is intended to pre-empt the ever-evolving narcotics market rather than reflect actual risk — contrary to urban legend, coming into contact with fentanyl isn’t automatically dangerous. (One study estimated that it would take 200 minutes of inhaling fentanyl at high airborne concentrations to yield a therapeutic dose.)
Around half of all CBP field operations staff are trained in Narcan, or naloxone, intervention. Naloxone is a user-friendly drug that can rapidly reverse opioid overdose — anyone interested in learning how to use the drug can learn to do so in as little as 20 minutes.
Presidio POE staff carry Narcan, as do the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office and the Presidio ISD Police Department. Margarito Hernandez, chief of the Presidio Police Department, recently started stocking his patrol vehicles with the drug as well. So far, local federal officials are the only law enforcement who have had to deal with fentanyl — but he feels it’s better to be safe than sorry. “It’s kind of scary — I hope it doesn’t come across,” he said.