How much drugs are smuggled into the us per year

Moreover, fentanyl seizures have consistently increased in size over the last five years, and recent reports indicate huge increases of fentanyl seized by Mexican authorities on their side of the border. TCOs ship their wares to the land border hidden in tractor trailer trucks, cars, and in some cases, people. In addition to using these same means between ports of entry , TCOs also breach existing border barriers by using tunnels and have increasingly employed drones to move shipments of drugs into the United States, amongst other purposes.

Drug cartels and TCOs have a long history of using maritime means to attempt to bring drugs into the United States. They include:. First, the Coast Guard is unique amongst federal agencies because it is at all times both a military armed force and law enforcement agency. This inherent, full-time duality allows for maximum operational flexibility when conducting independent interdiction operations or using Coast Guard deployable, specialized forces aboard DoD and partner nation platforms.

Next, the Coast Guard has made highly effective use of 34 bilateral agreements with partner nations throughout the region. These agreements vary in scope of authority, but when taken as a whole, they facilitate operations, interdictions, and ultimately prosecutions both in the United States and in partner nations against TCO activities across the entire maritime drug transit zone.

Byman Friday, January 15, The TCOs of are highly incredibly savvy actors who operate with real reach and power. This means that to effectively deal with them, the United States under the Biden administration should pay as much heed to cyber and economic tools as it does to interdictor ships, boats, and aircraft.

Indeed, the Department of Defense already has relatively broad statutory authority and presidential policy direction to engage in certain cyber operations. Several dynamics may, however, make U. First is the high likelihood of widespread maritime fentanyl shipment. While data does not yet indicate that significant amounts of fentanyl are moving through maritime routes directly into the United States, this trend is growing more and more likely given the U.

This is a wicked problem that is not easily solved, beyond increasing the quantity and fidelity of intelligence to support interdiction operations. Doing so is a must. The Biden administration must maintain, and where possible advance, existing levels of cooperation with nations like Colombia , Costa Rica , and Panama.

It must also come up with a viable strategy to address the challenges posed by the governments of Mexico and Venezuela if the Biden administration intends to gain ground on the supply-side of TCO-driven drug trafficking.

Seizures in South America accounted for 59 per cent of the global total for , compared with 45 per cent in Data and Analysis.

United Nations. Office on Drugs and Crime. Site Search. Drug trafficking. Introduction Drug trafficking is a global illicit trade involving the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. More Resources: Data and Analysis. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Heroin is small in volume. John Kelly, then the commander of U. Southern Command, told a Senate committee in The amount has probably increased somewhat today, but still takes up little space: all the heroin consumed in the United States in an entire year could probably fit into two foot shipping containers.

Now, imagine the contents of those containers broken up into tiny amounts and scattered across vehicles, luggage, and cargo shipments and sent through 48 land crossings, plus airports, over the course of days. The difficulty explains why in , the DEA reported that U.

The dynamic is similar for other compact-volume drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl, which are overwhelmingly seized at ports of entry. Cannabis, which is larger and bulkier, appears to be trafficked more frequently in the areas between the ports. The ports of entry are a big part of the picture. First are the organized—the transnational criminal organizations, largely drug trafficking.

They are professional criminals, and their objectives are economic in nature.