Biden Outlines Federal Actions to Disrupt Fentanyl Smuggling Along Southern Border

The federal government is taking a number of steps to crack down on fentanyl smuggling along the southern border, President Biden said Tuesday night in his State of the Union address.

He described the government’s efforts to disrupt fentanyl trafficking by increasing scanning technology at official border crossings and increasing collaboration with delivery companies to identify suspicious packages, CBS News reports. The White House said the federal government is also enlisting the assistance of other countries to disrupt the global fentanyl production and supply chain.

Biden urged Congress to pass a law that would increase criminal penalties for traffickers who alter the chemical structure of fentanyl to create “fentanyl related substances” to evade regulation and prosecution.

Approximately 90% of the 80,000 opioid-related deaths in the United States in 2021 involved fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.