Drug smuggling

In America’s opioid crisis, military lets drug shipments go by

Amid a national opioid addiction crisis, the military command covering the Southern Hemisphere has the resources to intercept only a quarter of known narcotics shipments to the U.S., its commander said Thursday.

But it could do more with littoral combat ships and maritime patrol aircraft, U.S. Southern Command’s chief, Adm. Kurt Tidd, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. For now, its maritime presence hinges on the Coast Guard’s aging fleet of medium-endurance cutters.

Opioids — prescription and illicit — are the main driver of America’s drug overdose deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control. President Trump has called the opioid epidemic “the worst drug crisis in American history.”