Well this is kind of alarming…
TSA agents find fentanyl pills in candy bags
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has released details of an incident that happened on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
At around 7:30AM, a suspect attempted to go through the TSA screening checkpoint with several bags that were disguised as snacks, including Skittles, Sweetarts, Whoppers, and more. Agents found the contents suspicious, and the LA County Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau Detectives and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was called to the scene.
As it turned out, these bags contained roughly 12,000 fentanyl pills. In the meantime the suspect had fled the scene before law enforcement arrived. The person has been identified, however, and an investigation is ongoing.
The press release from the police notes that with Halloween approaching, parents should check their kids’ candy and make sure it doesn’t look like it has been tampered with, or may contain narcotics. While that’s of course good advice, presumably drug traffickers are primarily looking to actually sell these products, rather than give them away to kids on Halloween. But of course it’s better to be safe than sorry, and I get the point, given that these pills were found in candy bags.
It’s sad just how prevalent fentanyl deaths have become in recent years, so kudos to the TSA agents for identifying these suspicious bags and getting law enforcement officers involved. This is certainly a more useful bust than someone with a bottle of water.
Bottom line
Thousands of fentanyl pills have been seized at LAX, as a smuggler tried to pass through a security checkpoint with them. While the drugs were seized, unfortunately the traveler managed to flee the scene, though has at least been identified.
But The Drug Suppliers & their Families Vote. so they get a Pass at the Border.
Another wonderful treat from China
Trying to disguise your drugs as food is next level stupid. Food is this thing that always gets my bag alarmed, any organic matter in large quantities seems to trigger a hand inspection.
Stupid criminals.
Any candy pack that is more than 60% filled is definitely tampered with.
And try to at least get the shapes to match. A pill shaped Whoppers or Lifesavers gummies?
One word: amatuer!
Alarmist media fodder and an irresponsible statement from the police. No one ever puts pills or razor blades or poison in Halloween candy. No one. Why do people fall for this crap every year? It's like you have a kid and then your brain shuts off.
I am not sure people commonly provide illicit drugs in Trick or Treat goodies but there are crazy and bad people in this world.
I can assure you that razor blades have been found in candy. Too. Often.
I'm not a republican and have serious issues with the majority of this GOP's priorities (climate, women's rights, isolationist views on Ukraine), but there is a legitimate crisis at the border that has to be handled. People forget that the Obama Administration deported more illegal immigrants than the Bush Administration. Border security is national security and should not be reduced to partisanship.
Deportations didn't really increase under Trump either, despite all of the partisan rhetoric. Deportations from 2009-2014 (under Obama) were actually higher than those in 2017-2019 under Trump. So I agree with you that this should not be a partisan issue, but unfortunately everything has become a partisan issue given how fractured the country is.
That being said, curious why this is raised here given that the drug bust occurred at an airport, not the border....
Deportations didn't really increase under Trump either, despite all of the partisan rhetoric. Deportations from 2009-2014 (under Obama) were actually higher than those in 2017-2019 under Trump. So I agree with you that this should not be a partisan issue, but unfortunately everything has become a partisan issue given how fractured the country is.
That being said, curious why this is raised here given that the drug bust occurred at an airport, not the border. While it seems clear that most drugs come across the southern border that isn't the case here so it seems tangential at best.
Most drug traffickers bring their drugs through Ports of Entry into the USA. Most often in a vehicle, boat or airplane. Drug smuggling and illegal immigration are two different things and both have been happening for decades. Like you said, this was discovered by the TSA at LAX, not by Customs. I’ve yet to hear where these drugs were manufactured, maybe it was in Burbank, fentanyl can be manufactured anywhere. Fentanyl didn’t suddenly just appear...
Most drug traffickers bring their drugs through Ports of Entry into the USA. Most often in a vehicle, boat or airplane. Drug smuggling and illegal immigration are two different things and both have been happening for decades. Like you said, this was discovered by the TSA at LAX, not by Customs. I’ve yet to hear where these drugs were manufactured, maybe it was in Burbank, fentanyl can be manufactured anywhere. Fentanyl didn’t suddenly just appear two years ago when Biden assumed office and neither did this country’s drug problems. You could build a 100 foot wall around the US and it would still have a drug problem.
What's sad is the amount of fentanyl coming into the country at the Southern border, and yet the Biden Administration does nothing about it.
I hope that when GOP takes over Congress next year, Biden will be held accountable for his gross negligence.
Americans need to look themselves in the mirror. If there is no demand, there won't be a supply. Drugs and gun violence in Mexico are the product of Americans' addiction to drugs and love affair with high powered guns.
Ah yes, because 8yrs of Reagan solved the "border crisis."
Wait, hmm, no... it didn't.
How about 4yrs of GHWBush?
Not that either...?
Well, for sure 8 years of GWBush did, I mean, after all: National Security amyright?!
No???
Erg. Well, Trump of course built a wall, and had Mexico pay for it. Surely that happened, and solved everything!
Whaaaaa???
..........SURELY it'll be different next time! #CharlieBrownFootball
What is sad is injecting politics into everything. This post has nothing to do with the southern border--it was a drug bust at an AIRPORT--yet you take the opportunity to trash Biden. Are you really so sensitive about and/or consumed by this topic that you have to raise it everywhere you go? Maybe you need to take a step back and realize that there are more productive ways to think about society and life than...
What is sad is injecting politics into everything. This post has nothing to do with the southern border--it was a drug bust at an AIRPORT--yet you take the opportunity to trash Biden. Are you really so sensitive about and/or consumed by this topic that you have to raise it everywhere you go? Maybe you need to take a step back and realize that there are more productive ways to think about society and life than through the lens of "us vs. them", especially when in this case the "them" appears to be your fellow countrymen.
LAX passenger tried to convince TSA all he had was candy. But that was a whopper.
My childhood neighborhood of about 60 houses, where my mother still lives, just cancelled trick-or-treat this year due to the candy scare.
Instead, all the neighbors are getting together to have cake, cookies, pizza etc and other entertainment for the kids.
At first, I thought they were buying into hysteria, as WhoTF is going to hand out free drugs for no profit?
Now, as more and more reports like this show up, I sorta get their caution....
Yaaaaawn.
Ah yes, such a cogent and witty response. :)
So they're putting the drugs in the cake and cookies? What's the difference between this and handing out candy in the neighborhood?