Someone at the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) should be getting a raise.
Last week, four suspected drug traffickers with links to Mexican cartels were arrested in Oregon with multiple barrels of liquid heroin inside a moving truck.
According to The Seattle Times, the actual amount of heroin seized amounted to nearly 370 gallons, enough to kill approximately 53 million people or around 16 percent of America’s current population.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release:
… as part of an ongoing, multi-agency drug trafficking investigation, law enforcement obtained information that several individuals working for a transnational criminal organization were transporting a large load of illegal narcotics into the District of Oregon. Late in the evening of January 24 and in the early morning hours of January 25, 2024, investigators observed a rented moving truck driven by Amador and an accompanying red pickup truck traveling west on Interstate 84 near Bonneville, Oregon. Investigators observed the vehicles travel together to a motel in Tigard, Oregon, making one brief stop in a commercial parking lot in Beaverton, Oregon.
The release added that the total seizure amounted to 1.4 metric tons, equivalent to the size of a small vehicle:
Later on January 25, investigators executed federal search warrants on the defendants’ motel room and two vehicles. They located and seized eight 55-gallon barrels containing approximately 370 gallons of a liquid narcotic inside the moving truck and two loaded handguns inside the motel room. All four defendants were arrested without incident. Investigators transported the seized narcotic, which weighed approximately 1.4 metric tons, to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) narcotics room. Lab tests later confirmed the barrels contained liquid heroin.
The suspects, named Marco Antonio Magallon, 44; Luis Deleon Woodward, 26; Jorge Luis Amador, 25; and Santos Alisael Aguilar Maya, 32, all reportedly lived in Yakima, Washington.
Images published of the raid showed a German Shepherd named Mango standing in front of the vehicle with four enormous barrels loaded up behind him. The suspects also surrendered firearms.
Although the country has long faced the challenge of Mexican drug cartels taking advantage of American’s desire for drug consumption, the problem is evidently being exacerbated by the thousands of people illegally crossing the southern border on a daily basis.
As well as being one of the main causes of America’s fentanyl crisis which is killing tens of thousands of people each year, cartels are also notorious for their brutal methods and have no qualms about operating in such a way even on U.S. soil.
This is why a growing number of Republicans are calling for military action against the cartels in a bid to stop the flow of death and criminality they bring. Among them is, of course, presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has previously said he would activate “all necessary military assets” in order to destroy them.
“When I am back in the White House, I will take action on day one to end this horrific plague and save American lives,” Trump was quoted as saying last year. “Joe Biden will never solve the drug overdose crisis because he is actively destroying our border.”
