Despite New Safeguards, Fentanyl Trafficking Is Still a Problem
August 23 2019 - 6:28PM
Dow Jones News
By Kelsey Gee and Arian Campo-Flores
President Trump's tweet Friday ordering delivery companies to
block shipments of fentanyl from China put a spotlight on
long-running efforts to combat trafficking of the deadly synthetic
opioid.
Up to 50 times as powerful as heroin, fentanyl has fueled an
epidemic of drug-overdose deaths in the U.S. for years. It is
sometimes mixed with other drugs such as heroin or pressed into
counterfeit prescription pills and sold to sometimes unsuspecting
users.
The vast majority of fentanyl arriving in the U.S. comes from
foreign sources, mainly from China, according to drug-enforcement
officials. While much of it is routed through Mexico, U.S. buyers
also purchase fentanyl online from labs in China and have it
shipped to them. They have relied on the U.S. Postal Service as
well as United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp., according to
authorities.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned three
Chinese nationals and a pharmaceutical company for running an
alleged narcotics trafficking operation that, according to
officials, has contributed to the U.S. opioid crisis. Officials
cited the use of express mail and the Postal Service.
In response to Mr. Trump's tweet, American carriers said they
have already implemented safeguards to spot and thwart
international drug shipments sent by mail to the U.S.
"FedEx already has extensive security measures in place to
prevent the use of our networks for illegal purposes," company
spokeswoman Jenny Robertson said Friday. "We follow the laws and
regulations everywhere we do business and have a long history of
close cooperation with authorities."
Ms. Robertson said FedEx has encouraged federal postal
inspectors to enforce a law that requires international senders of
mail to the U.S. to give U.S. Customs and Border Protection
inspectors basic information about a package's intended recipient,
contents and the shipper's name and address.
The U.S. Postal Service has said the measure, known as the
Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention, or STOP, Act, which
was signed into law last year, has added significant costs as
inspectors increase scrutiny of deliveries. A Postal Service
spokesman said that the agency is working aggressively to implement
the new shipping requirements but that it has limited control over
whether foreign senders comply with U.S. law. He declined to
comment on the president's tweet.
In July, Chief Postal Inspector Gary R. Barksdale testified to
Congress that the agency's staff had seized 185 synthetic opioid
parcels so far in 2019, of which 153 were shipments from domestic
senders.
As of May, he said the Postal Service received advanced
electronic data on 60% of the international shipments arriving in
the U.S. mail system, up from 26% in October 2017. The STOP law
required the agency to collect shipment information on 70% of
inbound deliveries from foreign shippers by the end of last year
and on all international packages by the end of 2020.
For China specifically, the agency was now collecting
information on 85% of deliveries.
Glenn Zaccara, a UPS spokesman, said that the company doesn't
disclose its screening processes out of confidentiality and
security concerns but that it works closely with Customs and Border
Protection agents and other law-enforcement agencies to monitor for
illicit substances.
"UPS takes a multilayered approach to security and compliance to
identify and prevent delivery of illegal fentanyl and other illicit
substances as well as any other attempts of noncompliant
shipments," Mr. Zaccara said.
Representatives for Amazon.com Inc. didn't respond to requests
for comment.
Write to Kelsey Gee at kelsey.gee@wsj.com and Arian Campo-Flores
at arian.campo-flores@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 23, 2019 18:13 ET (22:13 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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