White House targets fentanyl with summit on South Texas border

McALLEN, Texas ( Border Report ) — The use of Narcan to prevent opioid overdoses and how to help families dealing with drug abuse issues were among the topics discussed at a DEA Fentanyl Summit on Friday in Laredo, Texas.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, City of Laredo and Laredo Police Department hosted the daylong event at Texas A&M International University, and the agency says it’s the first time this program has been held on the border.

In 2023, the DEA seized 81 million doses of fentanyl, up from 54 million the year before.

“We have been inundated with the amount of fentanyl we’ve been seeing,” DEA Special Agent in Charge of the Laredo Field Office Robert Kennedy told the Laredo Morning Times.

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced with DEA officials in Atlanta that her department has sanctioned eight people affiliated with the La Nueva Familia Michoacana, a Mexican cartel that traffics fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.

“President Biden has directed the entire U.S. government to use every tool at our disposal to combat the opioid epidemic and save lives. It’s a priority,” Yellen said .

She said her agency is targeting “kingpins and their support networks who seek to exploit our financial system to traffic narcotics.”

La Nueva Familia Michoacana moves drugs across the Southwest border to Dallas and Houston and other interior cities like Chicago and Atlanta, she said.

“Our sanctions will cut off the cartel leaders from their ill-gotten money and make it harder for them to bring deadly fentanyl to our streets,” she said.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

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