Border officials seized 9,400 pounds of fentanyl in last three months of 2022

U.S. border authorities seized 9,400 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border between October and December of last year, marking a near tripling of seizures from the same period in 2021 as both drug trafficking and illegal migration continue to surge in the area.

Data from U.S Customs and Border Protection indicates that those seizures in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023 reached nearly two-thirds of the totals for all of fiscal year 2022, during which the agency reported seizing 14,700 pounds of the drug.

Many of the seizures have come at U.S. ports of entry, the New York Post reported. Fentanyl has rapidly become one of the most trafficked narcotics at the southern border.

The Drug Enforcement Agency announced in December 2022 that it had seized enough of the drug to deliver lethal doses to more people than the entire American population.

Seizing more than 379 million doses of fentanyl, the DEA secured more than 50 million fentanyl pills that year. Fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for Americans age 18-49.