CBP Working on Guidance to Help Brokers Vet Customers for Fentanyl

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- CBP is "looking at better ways" to address concerns about what brokers are supposed to do to vet their customers for potential trafficking in fentanyl, meth and other illegal drugs, said Rosa Hernandez, CBP San Diego Area Port director.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the Western Cargo Conference (WESCCON) on Oct. 27, Hernandez said that she would put these issues down as "topics items" and address them at their regular broker meetings.

Hernandez's remarks came in response to a question from a member of the audience, who said that she is "constantly shocked" by how little broker management officers understand what a broker does and what the law requires. "So hopefully there is going to be robust trade input on any new recommendations as to vetting when they do exist," the audience member said.

At Los Angeles International Airport, CBP seized almost 3,000 kilograms of fentanyl precursor headed for the Southwest border and to Mexico over a recent two- to three-month operation, said Cheryl Davies, the Los Angeles director of field operations for CBP. She said that one kilogram of fentanyl precursor can be used to make 10,000 fentanyl pills. Sixty percent of fentanyl pills in the U.S. have a deadly dose, Davies said.

"The greater L.A. area is a hub for all of the precursors coming in," Davies said. This is because Los Angeles is getting "the flights from China going through Korea" that are bringing in the precursor, she said. "So it's incumbent on us to have a whole of government effort," she said.

In 2022, there were 107,000 deaths due to drug overdoses and 80% of those deaths were from fentanyl, CBP Acting Director Troy Miller said in opening remarks at the conference. CBP seized over 27,000 pounds of fentanyl in FY 2023, Miller said.

"Fentanyl precursor is coming through our airports, it is going through the Southwest border, it is being used to produce fentanyl and it's coming back into the country through our ports of entry," he said. "I take that personally. That's three opportunities we have to stop this deadly poison from coming into our communities."

Rene Ortega, the CBP Seattle Area Port director, discussed the importance of partnerships. Ortega said he wants stakeholders to help with enforcement, pointing to an example of DHL flagging a new shipper, which helped with a small seizure.

The day before the panel discussion, CBP released an updated "strategy to combat Fentanyl and other synthetic drugs," and the first goal outlined in the document was to "promote collaboration and information-sharing to combat illicit synthetic drug networks." As part of that goal, CBP said it will work with "express consignment carriers, air carriers, and other logistic companies to share information about suspicious commodities, potential transit routes that bad actors are leveraging, and other data that can help thwart the supply chain."