Fentanyl, Fugitives, and Border Mayhem
Plus, Is DHS Failing to Report Potential Terrorist Threats?
Good Morning, friends,
Lots to talk about this week as the Border Crisis continues. In our most pessimistic moments, we find it likely that Texas and other States in the interior of the country will be dealing with the ramifications of all of this for many years to come.
It’s easy to focus on week-to-week developments and take one’s eye off the longer-term matters, but every once in a while, the eyes lift to the horizon and one realizes: There will be children today, entering the workforce in 10-20 years, and the failures we are all witnessing will remain a factor in their lives unless something changes.
We’ll ramble on some more about that in a future newsletter.
The thoughts haven’t finished baking yet.
Locally right now, Eagle Pass is getting hammered. Reports are reaching Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe that 2,000 individuals crossed the river Sunday alone, with another trainload right behind them.
Folks active on Facebook may’ve already seen some of the photographs and video of folks popping up and down inside industrial train cars in Coahuila, just a few miles south of Eagle Pass.
This is all on top of the steady streams of people who’ve already been coming and trying to cross via the Ports of Entry, or the well-used sections of the river that press and Coyotes have been so common at.
Meanwhile, some estimates suggest more than 5,000 individuals are coming up through the Darien Gap in Panama, daily.
The weather is cooling down. The trip is safer now and the numbers are bound to only increase.
Not sure how overloaded Eagle Pass facilities will have to get before the feds start releasing people into the streets, but surely that isn’t far away.
In Guadalupe County, TX, near Seguin, there’s word of a major fentanyl bust. Law-Enforcement officers found 42 kilos of the stuff in the camper of a pickup truck. And, after some digging, they discovered that the vehicle had crossed over the river in Eagle Pass.
The driver is identified as 20-year-old Ruben Martinez-Martinez, of Eagle Pass. He’s now in the hands of the DEA and facing federal charges.
Is it possible that the fentanyl was picked up somewhere in the US? Sure. But let’s be real— it’s almost certain that it’s from Mexico, and smugglers were able to get it through the port of entry while Customs agents were busy being overwhelmed by mostly bogus asylum seekers.
How many people can you expect to OD on 42 kilos of fentanyl, anyway?
Well, according to some estimates, 2-milligrams of fentanyl are enough to kill most adults. That amount can vary depending on opioid tolerance, age and weight.
You need about 1-million milligrams to make 1 kilo. Anybody have a calculator handy?
By way of comparison, most experts will tell you that heroin doesn’t become fatal for most adults until they get into the 30-milligram range.
So, by any measure— that’s an incredibly deadly amount of fentanyl.
It truly is a tribute to the creativity of our Chinese and Cartel drug suppliers that they’ve been able to find such an effective and economical way to ramp up their ability to poison American cities and culture.
We mentioned DHS and what seems to be a failure in reporting potential terrorist threats— we take this from recent congressional panel testimony by border security expert and analyst Todd Bensman from the Center for Immigration Studies.
Tucked away in his comments, we found a nugget that ought to be leaving certain folks sleeping restlessly at night.
Apparently, when you go up onto DHS’s public-facing website of monthly border encounters and apprehension statistics, you find individuals from only one of what’s called a “special interest muslim-majority nation.”
In this case, it’s Turkey. According to the website, 30,000 Turks crossed the river between 2021 and the end of July 2023.
Meanwhile, Bensman’s own reporting— and the reporting of others, has shown encounters South of the border with people from Uzbekistan, Dagestan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Mauritania, Sudan, Senegal, Indonesia, Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon all seemingly on their way here.
Isn’t that weird?
As Bensman notes in his testimony, this begs quite a few questions. Why aren’t these other nations showing up on this website?
Are these individuals simply not crossing the border? Are they waiting in Mexico?
Are they crossing freely and not getting caught?
If they are caught— are they telling DHS they’re from somewhere else and getting away with it?
Is DHS classifying them in some new-fangled garbage way so they don’t have to report them?
Very weird.
This should alarm everyone with an ounce of sense. Especially when you figure there’s nobody at DHS with the time right now to go digging for answers.
That should do it for now, though we are well aware that we’ve failed to even mention Attorney General Ken Paxton and the success of his defense against impeachment.
A lot of people have been celebrating the event online, but we can’t help but note how he’s not out of the woods yet, with more pending lawfare awaiting him at the federal level.
Legal experts suggest it won’t matter— that the feds are using the same witnesses who’ve already been taken apart under oath— which leads to a reasonable expectation that unless the feds can come up with something new, their arguments will be just as flat and busted.
It’s a nice thought, if you’re a Ken Paxton supporter— and we are— but we can’t help but note once again how if justice was a ball, it’d be a funny-shaped thing, like a football. All rounded curves and pointed ends. And sometimes it takes a funny bounce that catches everyone off guard.
Is that going to happen here? Don’t know, and we have no way of telling. Dade Phelan may’ve been putting on a brave face when he issued his statement following the failed impeachment— one can’t afford to look weak if you’re trying to keep restless lawmakers in line in the House. But it’s also possible he might know something we don’t.
Either way, Ken Paxton has his work cut out for him in the weeks and months ahead, even if it’s just spent stomping up and down on legislative dirtbags while wearing golf shoes.
As always, no one should mistake this humble newsletter for any kind of an official communication. Despite our employment with Kinney County, it is produced without oversight and any misdeeds, errors, or other problems are entirely our own.
Have a great morning and we’ll be back again soon.
Thank you. Will send this on to others.