Cartels have severely pumped the brakes on trafficking fentanyl into the United States, and experts say that's thanks to the Trump administration's aggressive crackdown.
Fentanyl seizures year-over-year at the southern border have been cut roughly in half almost every month since President Donald Trump took office, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. In June, it was only a 42 percent decrease, but there was a 70 percent drop in May.
According to experts, the plunge isn't because authorities are catching less fentanyl—it's because cartels simply aren't trafficking as much. They said a suite of interconnected Trump policies that enhanced border security and increased targeting of cartels by U.S. and Mexican agencies—under pressure from Trump—have forced the criminal organizations to scale back operations.
"The statistics are a true reflection of the amount of drugs that are coming here," Center for Immigration Studies resident fellow in law and policy Andrew Arthur told the Washington Free Beacon. "Consequently, the quantity of drugs is dropping because the Trump administration has made it a priority. It has made the Mexican government make it a priority."
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