Drug smuggling

To combat drug smuggling, Trump signs bill to provide $9 million for opioid sensors

Customs agents will have $9 million for additional equipment to detect fentanyl and other opioids from entering the country under a bill President Trump signed Wednesday.

The Interdict Act — an acronym for International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology — allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to buy chemical screening devices that can detect the deadly drugs as they enter the United States.

China is the largest source of fentanyl smuggling, but the drug is often shipped first to Mexico or Canada where it then crosses the border into the United States. It's often shipped by mail or other couriers — and even ordered online — but it can be difficult to detect in small amounts.

"They’re using our postal system and they’re killing our people,” Trump said in an Oval Office signing ceremony with a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

He said the drugs are dangerous even to the drug-sniffing dogs used to detect opioids in packages. “Even dogs die from the scent,” he said. “Nobody has ever seen anything like this.”