North Carolina’s attorney general has asked congressional leaders to give U.S. Customs and Border Protection about $300 million in funding to install equipment to detect fentanyl in vehicles entering the United States.
Attorney General Josh Stein said they already have the equipment to do it but C-B-P cannot install it without additional funding.
Agents would be able to x-ray more cars and trucks using massive drive-through screeners at the border with the technology, and while lawmakers included the funding in the bipartisan border security legislation, congressional Republicans blocked the bill earlier this year.
More than 95 percent of fentanyl seized at the border arrives in personal vehicles, and Stein said more than 27,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border and ports of entry from October 2022 to the end of last September.
Stein said too many North Carolinians are dying after taking the drug and, “Playing politics with border security is disgraceful.”
Read the letter here: https://ncdoj.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/AG-Stein_Fentanyl-letter-to-Congress-002.pdf
