Mexican cartels expand drug trade to Alaska, increasing deaths

A ‘DRUG KING-PIN’ ARRESTED – PART OF A TRANSNATIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO ORGANIZED CRIME.

MIGUEL GUEVARA CLAIMED TO HAVE TIES TO THE SINALOA CARTEL.

BUT WHAT MAKES HIS CASE UNIQUE – ISN’T THE CHARGES – BUT THE LOCATION WHERE HE WAS CAUGHT.

MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS ARE DIRECTING THEIR EFFORTS TOWARD ALASKA – AND AS THE THE LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL REPORTS, IT’S CONTRIBUTING TO A RISE IN OVERDOSE DEATHS IN THE LAST FRONTIER.

C-D-C DATA SHOWING A 75-PERCENT SPIKE FROM 20-20 TO 2021 IN THE STATE.

BRANDON WADDLE, SPECIAL AGENT, FBI

“People target Alaska because of the economic impact. It’s truly supply and demand. It is economics in its purest sense. And by that I mean where there’s less supply, you can make more money. And so here in Alaska, where there’s less supply, drug organizations or criminal organizations can charge more money for their product.”

ACCORDING TO A 20-21 REPORT BY THE GOVERNOR’S ADVISORY COUNCIL ON OPIOID REMEDIATION – NEARLY 76 PERCENT OF THE 2-HUNDRED-53 FATAL OVERDOSES IN ALASKA INVOLVED SYNTHETIC NARCOTICS, INCLUDING FENTANYL.

ALASKA FACES DISTINCTIVE CHALLENGES IN COMBATING DRUG ADDICTION AND RELATED CRIME BECAUSE OF ITS REMOTE LOCATION AND DISPERSED POPULATION.

JAMES KLUGMAN, HEAD OF FEDERAL CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS,  ALASKA U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE 

“cargo and passenger routes that are operating under very little scrutiny in rural Alaska. That’s absolutely a channel of how drugs are being moved and distributed. And then as you get to more rural parts of the state, you have many, many small villages that aren’t accessible by road that you can only reach by air or boat.”

IT’S AN ISSUE THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS FOCUSING ON. PART OF A YEARSLONG PUSH TO STEM THE RAMPANT IMPORTATION OF FENTANYL, WHICH KILLS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS EACH YEAR.

BRANDON WADDLE, SPECIAL AGENT, FBI

“What keeps me up at night is the fact that fentanyl is killing our small communities.”

MEANTIME – NALOXONE KITS, ALSO KNOWN AS NARCAN, ARE AVAILABLE AT MANY PHARMACIES AND THROUGH MOST STATES’ HEALTH DEPARTMENTS. LAST YEAR–THE STATE WAS AWARDED MORE THAN 2-POINT-7 MILLION DOLLARS IN FUNDING TO PREVENT OVERDOSE DEATHS.