MIAMI: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers working at Miami International Airport have seized a combined total of 90 pounds of synthetic drugs over the past two months. The seizures have all resulted from the inspection of mail parcels arriving through the international mail facility.Drugs seized by CBP officers in Miami.
CBP officers assigned to the international mail facility inspect thousands of incoming parcels every day. As of December 1, 2015, there have been a total of 47 individual seizures at the international mail facility all involving substances identified as synthetic drugs. The combined weight of these drugs is approximately 90 pounds.
The synthetic drugs are chemically designed and manufactured to mimic the effect of other established illicit drugs. Some of the synthetic drugs seized are what are known as “bath salts”.
The drugs seized vary in concentrations and purities. Some of the samples are deemed to be 100 to 800 times more potent than there established counterpart. The one common element all 47 seizures have is that they were all shipped from mainland China.
“We are increasingly intercepting these parcels containing these new dangerous drugs,” said Miami International Airport Port Director Christopher Maston. “CBP officers are diligently working to prevent these drugs from entering our nation.”
CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws including the interdiction of narcotic contraband while maintaining the effective and efficient flow of travel, trade and tourism at our airports, seaports and land borders.
Seizures of illicit contraband at our ports of entry demonstrate the vigilance of our highly-trained CBP officers and their unwavering commitment to keeping dangerous drugs out of the United States while facilitating lawful international trade.
