Drastic rise in drug smuggling at Charlotte airport, federal data show
Authorities say there’s been a recent rise in drug smuggling through Charlotte Douglas International Airport and more federal agents have been called in.
Charlotte’s office of Homeland Security Investigations is particularly concerned about a spike in seizures of fentanyl at the airport. In 2019, agents confiscated only trace amounts of the drug. Last year, close to 38 pounds was seized in Charlotte’s airport.
A newly created task force led by Charlotte’s HSI Office and other law enforcement partners, aims to curb this, and the smuggling of other drugs. The enhanced enforcement began in March.
In addition to fentanyl, Charlotte has seen a significant increase in the seizure of other drugs, Deputy Special Agent in Charge for HSI Charlotte, Mike Prado, told The Charlotte Observer.
▪ The amount of cocaine found trafficking through the airport was up 10 times last year compared to 2019.
▪ Marijuana seizure amounts doubled in that same time period, according to HSI data.
▪ Methamphetamine seizures were up, too, with agents finding 6 times the amount last year than two years earlier.
HSI is the second largest federal investigative agency in the U.S. Prado said Charlotte’s Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) task force was created as a direct response to the increase in illicit activity and trafficking at the airport.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in methamphetamine, fentanyl, and opioids, especially,” Prado said.
In December alone, he said, there were 12 kilograms of fentanyl seized at the airport.
Fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine, are the most common drugs the task force sees coming through the airport, Prado said. While other drugs like marijuana are still being smuggled in bulk, Prado said those aren’t their focus, and stimulants are driving the market for drug trafficking.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Only 2 mg of fentanyl is needed to cause an overdose, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“So 12 kilograms is a major amount and really is indicative of kind of the enormity of the challenge and the scope of the trafficking issues that we’re hoping to address and to mitigate with the formation of the task force,” Prado said.
Drug smuggling via airports
The way drugs are being smuggled within the airport varies, Prado says some individuals carry the drugs on their bodies, others use luggage, or try to ship it via cargo with private shipping companies.
Part of the reason for the increase is the pandemic, which had significant impacts on drug usage nationally, Prado said.
“It has, to a certain extent, changed the way narcotics are distributed,” Prado said. “That continued along a trend where drug trafficking organizations, like legitimate businesses have leveraged ... the increase in technologies and availability of technologies to communicate with individuals that they’re selling narcotics to. And that extends to people who are involved in smuggling of narcotics.”
Fentanyl overdoses
Drug trafficking organizations typically distribute fentanyl by the kilogram — a little more than 2.2 pounds. One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people, according to the DEA.
Synthetic opioids like fentanyl are primarily responsible for overdose deaths in the United States, according to the CDC and DEA. Estimated overdose deaths from opioids increased to 75,673 in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, up from 56,064 the year before, CDC data shows.
Prado says fentanyl is especially dangerous, because other drugs can be laced with it, whether the consumer of the drug knows it or not.
“The end user of those narcotics may be ingesting what they believe to be cocaine or methamphetamine that actually has fentanyl in it. And sometimes fatal levels of fentanyl and so we’re seeing across the board nationally... increased fatal overdoses,” Prado said.
Fentanyl is frequently sold as powders and nasal sprays, and increasingly pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescription opioids, according to the DEA.
The BEST task force at the airport partners with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, the State Bureau of Investigations, and other federal, state and local agencies.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Drastic rise in drug smuggling at Charlotte airport, federal data show."
