Florida Sheriff travels with bipartisan group to southern border, confronts U.S. fentanyl crisis
Local law enforcement in Florida reminds us that the deadly synthetic opioid, fentanyl, continues to be mass produced at alarming rates, and continues to be smuggled across our southern border and eventually distributed across the U.S.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood of the Volusia Sheriff’s Office reports that ample amounts of that toxic drug end up in his own community, saying that, “we’re seeing more than 300 fatal drug overdoses a year here. That’s more than these border communities, and more than many counties across America.”
Rates of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, which includes fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, increased over 56% from 2019 to 2020. The number of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids in 2020 was more than 18 times the number in 2013. More than 56,000 people died from overdoses involving synthetic opioids in 2020.
The latest provisional drug overdose death counts through June 2021 suggest an acceleration of overdose deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. ~ CDC
Chitwood recently traveled with several colleagues to McAllen, Texas, for a tour of that area’s sector and joined in some critical briefings with Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. He shared the information that the primary cartel sending shipments from Reynosa, Mexico, through the McAllen sector has a firm foothold in our region. At least twice now in Central Florida, law enforcement has recovered shipments that trace back to that cartel.
Chitwood said that Homeland Security is trying their best, but they’re understaffed down there. Right now the McAllen sector has only 35 HSI personnel assigned to tracking down the cartels. By comparison, he has 46 detectives assigned to narcotics investigations just at the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
An increasing concern that Chitwood brought up is that fentanyl coming across our border is not just showing up in heroin. It is currently being mixed into everything from marijuana to cocaine to methamphetamines and is also being pressed into fake Adderall pills our kids can buy online. “It only takes one fatal dose to destroy a family,” he said.
The Sheriff said that during his stay in McAllen, he was part of a bipartisan hearing comprised of Republicans and Democrats who he hopes will take the opportunity to attack the current fentanyl crisis from every possible angle.
I want to thank Congresswoman Kat Cammack and our own state Senator Tom Wright (who I believe is the first Florida state senator to make this trip) for bringing us here. I’m with my Chief Deputy Brian Henderson, Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Rick Staly, Commander Joe Barile, and Sheriff Gordon Smith – Bradford County Sheriff and I think it’s fair to say it’s been an eye-opening trip for all of us. ~ Mike Chitwood
For more on the current fentanyl crisis, see the video accompanying this article.
(Source: Mike Chitwood, Volusia County Sheriff’s Office)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
