The U.S. Postal Service and Customs and Border Protection have been ramping up efforts to stop shipments of fentanyl, which largely arrive in the United States from China.
The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday on how the United States can stop the flow of synthetic opioids through the international mail system.
The number of Americans who died from an overdose of a synthetic opioid more than doubled from 2015 to 2016, said Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., chairman of the subcommittee. Nearly 64,000 Americans in 2016 died from drug overdoses, with 66 percent of the deaths involving some type of opioid.
Fentanyl, a cheap, synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and up to 100 times stronger than morphine, enters the United States with “alarming ease,” Reichert pointed out.
“It is frequently sold online and then shipped to the United States — typically from China — through express delivery carriers or through the international mail,” Reichert said, adding that it is very hard to detect because it is shipped in such small quantities.
The average fentanyl seizure in the international mail environment is only 700 grams and arrives as an unknown powder, said Todd Owen, executive assistant commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations.
Fentanyl shipped via mail often will be described as legal medicine or hidden within goods.
Fentanyl coming into the United States through the mail from China is typically 90 percent pure, Owen explained, adding that fentanyl coming in through Mexico — primarily in passenger vehicles via ports of entry — is usually less than 10 percent pure because it is mixed with other hard narcotics.
USPS Versus Private Carriers. For the last 15 years, the CBP, by law, has required private carriers to transmit advanced electronic data (AED) on shipments entering the United States, but the agency has not imposed this data requirement on the U.S. Postal Service since it operates in a different environment than private carriers, Reichert said.
AED typically includes the shipper and recipient name and address as well as the package contents.
However, because CBP has not imposed the data requirement on USPS, Reichert said it results in international mail shipments arriving in the United States with little information, creating a “significant vulnerability that can be easily exploited by drug traffickers.”
Rob Cintron, vice president of network operations at USPS, said the Postal Service agrees with the goal of the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Protection (STOP) Act of 2017 (H.R. 1057). The legislation would require USPS to transmit AED to CBP on international shipments into the United States, Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., ranking member of the Ways & Means Trade Subcommittee, explained during the hearing.
However, Cintron said that “an immediate blanket requirement that mail from all countries include AED is impractical, exceedingly costly and could impede the flow of international mail.”
Unlike private companies, USPS must accept and deliver mail from nearly every country in the world, and since it does not control the induction of foreign mail destined for the United States, it cannot control the collection of AED abroad, Cintron said.
Combating the Crisis. “We collect AED for more than 90 percent of outbound international mail, and in the past three years, we have increased receipt of AED on inbound shipments from virtually none to over 40 percent as of March 2018, including a substantial portion of those originating in China,” Cintron said. “The amount of AED from China is expected to grow significantly by the end of this year.”
Meanwhile, Owen said that in 2017, CBP created a Fentanyl Detection Canine Pilot Course. “As of November 23, 2017, all Office of Field Operations (OFO) concealed human and narcotic detector dogs working in the international mail and ECC environments have been trained to detect fentanyl,” he said. “All but one of CBP’s concealed human and narcotic detector dog teams have been trained to detect fentanyl across OFO’s work environments, with the remaining team scheduled to be trained by May 4, 2018.”
Owen added that CBP also has increased the availability of testing equipment for officers to quickly detect fentanyl and that funding approved by Congress will allow for even more testing equipment to be rolled out.
Overall, CBP has made improvements over the years in detecting fentanyl shipments. Owen said CBP seized 50 pounds of fentanyl in the international mail and express courier environments in 2015, 81 pounds in 2016 and 335 pounds in 2017.
The Path Ahead. Despite success, Owen said more must be done to combat synthetic opioid shipments from entering the United States, including:
• Continuing to increase the level and accuracy of the AED provided;
• Further refining targeting capabilities;
• Finding a technological solution that can quickly examine parcels for contraband without having to open the package;
• Working with law enforcement partners to identify and dismantle those criminal networks bringing these goods into our communities;
• And delivering consequences.