KELLY AYOTTE IS DESPERATE & CONTNUES HER MINDLESS ATTACKS AGAINST MASSACHUSETTS

KELLY: FOCUS ON NEW HAMPSHIRE'S FAILURES!

Just another predictable Republican DISTRACTION! 

KELLY AYOTTE IS DESPERATE! 
NEW HAMPSHIRE RESIDENTS CLOG MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAYS TRAVELLING TO GOOD PAYING JOBS THAT NEW HAMPSHIRE LACKS! 

NEW HAMPSHIRE RANKS: 
EDUCATION #19
FISCAL STABILITY #41 
HEALTH CARE #17
INFRASTRUCTURE #30 
US NEWS

AT THE REQUEST OF NEW HAMPSHIRE GOVERNOR CHRIS SUNUNU, THE LEGISLATURE APPROVED SENDING NATIONAL GUARD TO THE SOUTHERN BORDER ON THE FALSE ASSUMPTION THAT IT WOULD ADDRESS DRUGS BEING SMUGGLED BY 'IMMIGRANTS.' 

THIS HAS BECOME FALSE GOP PROPAGANDA AND IGNORES FACTS.

REPUBLICANS ARE CONSPICUOUSLY UNINFORMED & REFUSE TO RESEARCH ISSUES. 

WHILE THIS ARTICLE IS SOMEWHAT OUTDATED, 
IT PROVIDES BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE 

SOURCES....CONTAINERS, PORTS OF ENTRY, 

BORDER CHECKPOINTS, BOATS, DRONES 

PRESIDENT BIDEN has worked to address those 

sources... 

The wicked problem of drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere

What the Biden administration can do

BROOKINGS

Fentanyl makes its way into the U.S. from Mexico. Who's smuggling it in?

AUGUST 8, 20235:08 AM ET

HEARD ON MORNING EDITION

excerpt: 

Most of the fentanyl comes through legal ports of entry. We hear the story of one of the couriers.

As overdose deaths from fentanyl have soared, we've heard a lot about the dangers of the synthetic drug and how it's flowing across the southern border from Mexico. What we've rarely heard are the voices of the people, largely U.S. citizens, who actually smuggle that fentanyl across the border. NPR's Joel Rose talked to one of those couriers and brings us her story.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Haley says she had never done anything like this before. One night, she was hanging out with a guy she knew who asked if she wanted to make some extra money.

ROSE: At the time, Haley was smoking methamphetamine. She'd been addicted to meth once before and gotten sober, but then she relapsed after a bad breakup. This was during the COVID pandemic in 2021, and she was having trouble finding work in Tucson, Ariz., where she lived. So she agreed to drive to Mexico and come back with a bag of pills hidden inside her body.

HALEY: It was fentanyl. I did carry a thousand pills. It was inside of a condom.

ROSE: Prosecutors and defense lawyers both told me that Haley's story is typical in the sense that the vast majority of illicit fentanyl, close to 90%, is seized at ports of entry. Immigration authorities say nearly all of that is smuggled by people who are legally authorized to cross, more than half by U.S. citizens like Haley. Virtually none is smuggled by migrants seeking asylum. Sometimes fentanyl is hidden in tractor trailers carrying loads of legitimate cargo, but more often it's hidden in passenger cars or on the bodies of pedestrians.

ADAM GORDON: There's a popular misconception that it is these giant, giant seizures that are driving the numbers, and that's not it.

ROSE: Adam Gordon is a federal prosecutor in San Diego, one of the busiest smuggling points for fentanyl on the U.S.-Mexico border.

GORDON: The cases that we see every day are individuals who have 5 kilos of fentanyl and 10 kilos of methamphetamine, and those cases are happening constantly.

ROSE: Gordon says drug cartels routinely recruit couriers or mules to get their products across the border, and they're sophisticated about who they target for the job. Michael Humphries is the port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Nogales, Ariz., the same port where Haley tried to cross back from Mexico.

MICHAEL HUMPHRIES: They're looking for somebody we're not going to pay a lot of attention to. They target certain people, and they offer money to drive through. I've been at this for over 36 years, and it's been like that forever.

STEFANI HEPFORD: I've seen 20-year-old couriers. I've seen 60-year-old couriers. It's impossible to generalize.

ROSE: Stefani Hepford is an assistant U.S. attorney in Tucson who has prosecuted dozens of smuggling cases.

HEPFORD: The cartels are smart. They're going to pick couriers that they think are going to be more successful at that point in time. Maybe a middle-aged female is going to be a better option than a 20-year-old male.

ROSE: Law enforcement officials say the ideal candidate is someone who has legal permission to cross the border and goes back and forth a lot because they won't attract attention from customs officers at the port. In that sense, Haley was not a good candidate.

HALEY: I don't go to Mexico. That's not something I do. So, yeah, they knew something was up.

ROSE: The officer asked Haley what she was doing in Mexico.

HALEY: Because this is your first time coming back into the United States, we need to secondary you. And I already knew, you know, I was caught. It was done. In my heart, I knew that I was doing wrong, you know, so I started freaking out, and I kind of told on myself.

ROSE: Haley confessed. She was arrested and charged. She pleaded guilty and went to prison. That's when she met lots of women who had carried drugs through the ports, some of them repeatedly.

HALEY: I've heard girls talk about, you know, I did it. I had it inside of me or - and I'm just like, aren't you lucky? Like, you know, I got caught my first time. People do it over and over again 'cause the money is so good.

ROSE: Law enforcement officials say there is no shortage of people who are willing to do this work. Again, Adam Gordon, the prosecutor in San Diego.

GORDON: Usually they're in very desperate straits. These are individuals who are not wealthy typically, who are usually not being paid very much. Think of anywhere from - call it 1,000 to $5,000 to drive a vehicle across. A lot of it is driven, unfortunately, by addiction.

JESSICA TURK: Typically, my clients have hit rock bottom.

ROSE: Jessica Turk is a defense lawyer outside Tucson. She takes on clients who can't afford a private lawyer, mostly drug smuggling and human smuggling cases. Turk says many of her clients are struggling with addiction.

TURK: Their drug addiction has put them on the street, or they're living in a shed, or they're living in a car. They need money to fuel an addiction, and this is an opportunity that regularly presents itself to people in this area.

ROSE: When couriers get caught at the border, it's often their first serious criminal offense. That was the case for Haley. She cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence and served six months in prison. But the hardest part, she says, was losing custody of her children.

HALEY: That one decision that I had made to carry - my ex-sister-in-law had to adopt my kids because I got sentenced and I was in jail. Yeah, that was hard.

ROSE: Haley has been sober now for 18 months. She has a job, just bought a car, and she gets to see her kids again, though she says it's been hard trying to rebuild their trust.

HALEY: Six months ago from today, I could tell you my kids didn't really want to be around me. They didn't want to spend the night with me. Today, they're always like, Mom, can we spend another night with you, Mom?

ROSE: Haley says things could have gone a lot worse, considering how much fentanyl she was carrying inside her body.

HALEY: That's a lot of pills. I mean, it's enough to kill a thousand people, right? It was scary. If they would have opened inside of me, I'd be dead. You know, it's a very scary thought. So it's thoughts I don't like to think about a lot, you know?

ROSE: In hindsight, Haley says getting caught at the border on her first attempt was actually good luck.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Nogales, Ariz.

NPR DRUG SMUGGLING

Part 1: Investigating how illicit fentanyl is actually getting into the U.S.

AUGUST 7, 20234:40 PM ET

HEARD ON ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

Joel Rose

Most of the illicit fentanyl coming across the U.S.-Mexico border is smuggled through official ports of entry, according to immigration authorities. But not everyone believes that's the full story.

NPR PART 1

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

As overdose deaths from fentanyl have soared, the issue has exploded as a top concern in Washington. Most of the illicit fentanyl on U.S. streets is seeping in from Mexico, and immigration authorities say the vast majority of the smuggling happens at official ports of entry. But not everyone believes that's the full story. NPR's Joel Rose traveled to the border to find out what's really happening.

(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINE REVVING)

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Tractor-trailers idle at the port of Nogales in southern Arizona, waiting to carry more than 30 million pounds a day of tomatoes, grapes and other produce into the U.S., while workers, students and tourists pass through in cars and on foot by the thousands. Hiding in all that legal commerce and traffic are drugs, including fentanyl.

MICHAEL HUMPHRIES: This year, fentanyl is coming in like crazy. It's going throughout the U.S., everywhere we hear about addiction and overdose problems.

ROSE: Michael Humphries is the port director in Nogales. Humphries has decades of experience at U.S. Customs and Border Protection trying to stop contraband at the border. But synthetic opioids like fentanyl are hard to catch because they are so easy to conceal. Fentanyl is also more potent and cheaper to make than organic drugs, like heroin or cocaine. And smugglers have gotten very good at hiding it, especially in passenger cars.

HUMPHRIES: We don't open the trunk and, hey, there's a bag of fentanyl powder or pills. You know, we're looking at in tires, gas tanks, roof, floor, seats - anywhere you can imagine.

ROSE: I mean, you're talking about in the engine sometimes - right? - in the gas tank, like, deep in the vehicles.

HUMPHRIES: We have disassembled engines before. One time they pulled out two pistons from the engine. The void created by that was filled with narcotics, and the engine was still running.

ROSE: Fentanyl seizures have been climbing across the border, especially in California and Arizona. Close to 90% of that fentanyl is seized at ports of entry. Immigration authorities say it is smuggled mostly by U.S. citizens, as well as other travelers who are legally authorized to cross. Virtually none is seized from migrants who are seeking asylum.

TROY MILLER: Our analysis, our intelligence continues to point to most of it's being smuggled at the ports of entry.

ROSE: Troy Miller is the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. He says it is less risky for drug cartels to smuggle fentanyl through the ports.

MILLER: They're able to hide the narcotics in legitimate travel. They're able to surveil the travelers. They have preexisting logistics, routes to move the narcotics quicker.

ROSE: As the number of overdose deaths from fentanyl keeps climbing, smuggling has become a bigger issue in Washington, D.C. And the way fentanyl enters the country has become the subject of intense debate. Some of the leading voices in the Republican Party reject the official narrative that it is mostly coming through the ports. They believe there's a lot more fentanyl that's not being caught.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

MARK GREEN: The video cameras on the border show the cartel members in camouflage outfits, wearing backpacks full of fentanyl, pouring into our country.

CLAY HIGGINS: There's a tremendous amount of illicit fentanyl and meth crossing between the ports of entry.

ROSE: That's Representative Mark Green of Tennessee, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana. It's true that the Border Patrol does catch some fentanyl smuggled between the ports. Here's John Modlin, the chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, testifying at a congressional hearing in February.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHN MODLIN: Last year, we seized about 700 pounds of fentanyl. That was encountered - 52% of that, so the majority of that - was encountered in the field. So that is predominantly being backpacked across the border.

ROSE: The Border Patrol in Tucson is on pace to surpass that total this year. But even so, that is just a small fraction of the 10,000 pounds that were seized in Nogales and other ports in Arizona. Still, Republicans say that there could be far more fentanyl hiding in the backpacks of smugglers that the Border Patrol is not catching because agents are distracted by dealing with migrants crossing the border. Some argue that's allowing smugglers to sneak more of their product across in the wide stretches of terrain between the ports.

JIM CHILTON: These mountains over here are in the ranch.

ROSE: Jim Chilton points to a line of jagged mountains between his house and the U.S.-Mexico border. Chilton is a rancher in southern Arizona, about an hour's drive northwest of Nogales. He will tell anyone who asks about smugglers using the trails through these mountains on his ranch. Chilton says video cameras have captured images of more than 3,000 people over the past two years.

CHILTON: Nobody's in street clothes. They are in camouflage clothing, camouflage backpacks and they're wearing carpet shoes.

ROSE: Carpet shoes are like slippers made of carpet that go over your regular shoes. They hide the tread to make it harder for the Border Patrol to track your footsteps. Chilton has a big pile of carpet shoes in his driveway from people who've crossed his land, but that doesn't prove they were carrying drugs, though Chilton believes some of them were.

CHILTON: I know from the Border Patrol that about 20% of the 3,000 in the last couple years are packing hard drugs - fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, meth.

ROSE: Some local law enforcement officials, though, are skeptical. No one disputes that there's a lot of human smuggling going on in the mountains and desert around Nogales, as migrants pay smugglers thousands of dollars to sneak them into the U.S. without detection. But whether those border crossers are carrying large quantities of fentanyl or other drugs, that is debatable.

ARLETTE CABRERA: And this is, right now, where you would consider a hot location for foreign national activity.

ROSE: Arlette Cabrera is a sheriff's deputy in Santa Cruz County, which includes Nogales. She's also a part of Operation Stonegarden. That's a collaboration with the Border Patrol to catch migrants and smugglers in the rough terrain far from the ports of entry. We rode in her truck to a few popular crossing routes.

CABRERA: As you can see, there's a lot of trees, a lot of green. So it's harder to locate. It's easier for them to hide.

ROSE: Almost every day, Cabrera says she catches migrants walking these trails, trying to sneak further into the U.S. I asked if she's ever caught smugglers carrying fentanyl or other drugs.

CABRERA: So for the past two years and a half (ph) to three years, you don't really see a lot of drug smuggling. I have yet to run into somebody, you know, carrying a good amount of drugs, you know, inside a backpack or anything.

ROSE: Out here, it's mostly people being smuggled, Cabrera says. If you're looking for drugs, she says, they're at the port of entry, where they are largely smuggled by U.S. citizens and other authorized border crossers. We'll meet one of those couriers in the second part of our story tomorrow morning.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Nogales, Ariz.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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