Iron County in Utah is about the furthest thing from a border community.
But Sheriff Kenneth Carpenter says incidents like a traffic stop this month on the interstate, where a deputy nabbed a motorist for reckless driving and found 5 pounds of methamphetamine and $8,000 in cash, are results of the chaos on the U.S.-Mexico boundary.
State officials have warned sheriffs that Honduran gangs have stepped up drug trafficking along the Wasatch Mountains, Iron County’s SWAT team callouts are “way up” and deputies are finding more guns when they serve search warrants, Sheriff Carpenter said.
“Since the border’s been just wide open now, there’s no control,” he told The Washington Times. “The floodgates have been opened, and we’re seeing it on a much more frequent basis. We’re seeing a surge in the [drug] pipelines, we’re seeing a surge in fentanyl houses, we’re seeing a surge in criminal activity.”
Some voices in Washington say what comes across the U.S.-Mexico boundary makes its way into the interior. In other words, every community is a border community.
Iron County’s experience suggests that’s true.
Communities have worried this year about a nexus between border crossings and the spread of COVID-19 as migrants disperse from border states.
The most significant issues, however, are drugs and what follows from that, Sheriff Carpenter said.
Demand for drugs is soaring, and some analysts blame the pandemic. Latin American cartels have been ready with supply.
Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency that mans the border and ports of entry and is charged with sniffing out contraband, has nabbed nearly 180,000 pounds of methamphetamine so far this fiscal year. That’s a record, even with one month to go.
At more than 10,000 pounds, fentanyl seizures have shattered the record set last year of about 4,800 pounds.
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/sep/26/border-chaos-reverberates-deep-americas-heartland/
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