SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta paid a special visit to San Diego Monday in an effort to address the fentanyl crisis.
“Illicit fentanyl is indiscriminate, unfortunately it affects everyone. No one is immune,” said Bonta at a press conference in Serra Mesa.
According to Bonta, fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-45.
“We’re here to give a collective warning to those smuggling illicit fentanyl through our border, inflicting pain, suffering, addiction, and death to California families," said Bonta. "That we are watching and we are taking action.”
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 47% of all fentanyl seizures across the country happen here in San Diego.
“We feel the tremendous weight on our shoulders," said Tara McGrath, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. "We feel the weight of the addiction. We feel the weight of the deaths, and we feel the weight of the feat that this problem brings to our communities.”
Bonta toured the border and talked with CBP agents on the ground. Last year, more than 111,000 people lost their lives across the country to fentanyl overdose, and here in San Diego County, the number of lives lost was more than 800.
“Over 800 is unacceptable. That is two a day. Two people that won’t be there at the dinner table, that won’t be there on the soccer field, that won’t be sitting next to you at work,” said David King, Director of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program (HIDTA) for San Diego and Imperial Counties.
HIDTA's mission is to reduce drug trafficking, and according to King, the agency has brought $12 million dollars to the fight locally in assisting law enforcement and other prevention efforts.
“We face a very daunting task in our geographic region, San Diego and Imperial Counties, which is controlled by Sinaloa and CJNG cartels that push fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other drugs across the border on a daily basis,” said King.
Bonta told CBS 8 that over the past 3 years since he started the statewide Fentanyl Enforcement Program, seizures across the state have included more than 11 million fentanyl pills and 3,000 pounds of powder, and that much work needs to be done to dismantle criminal networks.
“They have a drug that is relatively inexpensive to make, incredibly potent, and very lethal," said Bonta. “No one is immune. Any and every community, rural or urban, suburban, coastal or inland, north, south, central, no one is immune to the impacts of fentanyl.”
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