Cobb Reporter

Fentanyl continues to pour in through the southern border and communities across America – including Cobb County – are seeing increased criminal activity, overdoses and even deaths related to the synthetic opioid drug.

Capt. Stan Bell of Cobb County Police Department told Cobb Reporter that "we have seen an increase in fentanyl-related activity. We've seized drugs that have been laced with fentanyl and that seemed to have increased in the last year for us." 

Bell also said the county has seen an increase in deaths related to the opioid.

Fentanyl seizures at the southern border are more than double the numbers for 2020, according to the Washington Free Beacon, and 9,337 pounds were seized by the end of July 2021, a 94% increase from 2020 when 4,791 pounds were seized, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency's Drug Seizure Statistics. The agency seized just 2,804 pounds in 2019.

The amount of fentanyl seized at the southern border is potent enough to kill 2 billion people, the Washington Free Beacon reported, and opioid overdoses are set to break an all-time record in 2021 – they account for 70% of the 841,000 drug-related deaths since 1991.

When asked how he believes fentanyl typically enters the U.S., Bell said, "I don't know the specifics, but I can tell you the DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] reports that fentanyl enters the United States through various means, typically by illicit drug users or manufacturers. So the DEA reports that the fentanyl has been coming increasingly from Mexico and China. …"

When asked if fentanyl poses a greater threat to some communities, Bell said, "It does not have a profile. So every community is at risk from fentanyl-related activities. Anywhere there could be an illicit drug user or a drug-trafficking organization, there is the potential for fentanyl-related activity."

The Washington Free Beacon reported that West Virginia filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over ending the Migrant Protection Protocols that were instituted by former President Donald Trump.

“By its consequences burdening and distracting the Border Patrol, the termination of the MPP decreases the security of the border against fentanyl trafficking between ports of entry, leading directly to both increased numbers of smuggling attempts and increased rates of success in evading Border Patrol,” the Washington Free Beacon said.

In Georgia, opioid overdoses have increased by the largest amount ever recorded. The Georgia Department of Public Health reported opioid overdoses have increased by 36% in the state, according to the Georgia Sun.

Dr. Dan McCollum, an emergency medicine physician at Augusta University Medical Center, told the Georgia Sun, “We’re seeing a great deal of fentanyl being used. The scary thing is that it hits so fast. It can stop your breathing so quickly.’’ Some experts believe COVID-19 related restrictions and feelings of isolation have led to an increase in drug use.

Atlanta has also reportedly become a popular location for drug traffickers due to equal distance from the U.S.-Mexico border and the East Coast, as reported by 11 Alive.

Cobb Reporter asked Bell what could be the solution to the fentanyl crisis. "I don't know about a solution," he said. "That's a little bit above my pay grade, but I can tell you that what we can continue to do is through investigative means as we seize drugs that once we get them tested that comes back with any kind of fentanyl included in them is on investigative and try and follow that back.

"If we arrest a drug user then we attempt to determine where he got his drugs and then try and trace backwards to see where the drug might've come from. To see if we could crack down on where that individual is getting the drugs and just work our way backwards in regards to opiate, fentanyl-related deaths," Bell said. 

"The Cobb County District Attorney's Office literally has an investigator that kind of does the same thing … and works backwards. So anytime there's a fentanyl-related death or an overdose, that investigator then tries to get knowledge of that death and then tries to start working his investigation backwards to see if he can determine where the drugs came from. And if we can keep trying to track backwards and determine where the drugs are coming from, we can subsequently try and stop them from entering our community," Bell said.