CHARLESTON–Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., chair of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, presided over a hearing Wednesday to review the role of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in stopping the flow of opioids, methamphetamines and other dangerous drugs across U.S. borders by land and mail.
“With its broad authority to enforce U.S. customs and trade laws, the Department of Homeland Security is uniquely positioned to identify and intercept the movement of contraband,” Capito said. “This subcommittee is committed to doing more to support the department to stop the flow of dangerous drugs into our communities and to working with other subcommittees to ensure the department’s efforts are complimentary and coordinated with other federal, state and local agencies.”
Officials from Customs & Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations and the Science and Technology Investigations, all divisions of the Department of Homeland Security, testified on the various ways the department is working to fight the growing opioid epidemic.
Derek Benner, deputy executive associate director Homeland Security Investigations–U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the fight does not and should not have to begin at the border.
“HSI’s approach is to push our borders out and address the threat in sync with our international and domestic footprints,” Benner said at Wednesday’s hearing, which was livestreamed. “This allows us to do more work overseas before the problem reaches our border by dismantling illicit pathways and by investigating and seeking prosecution of foreign organizational members in their homeland, when practical.”
Homeland Security Investigations agents investigate all types of cross-border criminal activity and work in close coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Agency as well as other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to target transitional criminal organizations that are supplying narcotics to the United States, Benner said.
Due to the changing potency, fentanyl has been attributed to most of the overdose related deaths in the U.S.
“Fentanyl is being smuggled into the U.S. by air, land and sea,” Benner said. “To highlight the rapid popularity of this drug, in 2015, HSI seized approximately 69 pounds of fentanyl. Fast forward two years, in 2017, HSI seized over 2,400 pounds of fentanyl.”
Todd Owen, executive assistant commissioner office of field operations for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the CBP plays a critical role in preventing illicit narcotics from reaching the American people while facilitating lawful travel and trade, preventing the illegal entry of inadmissible persons and contraband.
In addition to individuals attempting to smuggle narcotics over the border on their person or by truck or car at different points of entry, smugglers also use the international mail and express consignment courier. This poses a significant threat, Owen said Wednesday.
“Illicit narcotics can be purchased from sellers through online transactions and then shipped via the United States Postal Service or express consignment courier,” Owen said. “Drug trafficking organizations and individual purchasers move drugs such as illicit fentanyl in small quantities, making detection and targeting a significant challenge.”
To combat this threat, Customs and Border Protection operates within nine major international mail facilities to inspect international mail arriving from more than 180 countries through a variety of technologies.
“In 2017, CBP made 118 seizures of illicit fentanyl totaling approximately 240 pounds in the (express consignment carrier) environment and 227 seizures totaling approximately 92 pounds of illicit fentanyl in the international mail environment. CBP also made 65 seizures of fentanyl at land point of entry’s totaling approximately 853 pounds.”
Drugs can also be purchased on the internet and then shipped into the United States, Owen said.
Andre Hentz, acting deputy under secretary of Science and Technology investigations, said the department continues to work on collaborations with other agencies to develop technology to help detect narcotics.
Science and Technology is partnering with Customs and Border Protection, with support from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, on a $1 million prize competition that challenges American innovators to develop screening capabilities, Hentz said.
In partnership with Customs and Border Protection and the United States Postal Service, Science and Technology is working to develop technical methods for exposing illegal mail transfers from foreign countries for distribution to domestic addresses in the United States in an attempt to better identify suspicious packages, Hentz said.