Operation Plaza Spike Fact Sheet
Operation Plaza Spike text with drug imagery
CBP is launching Operation Plaza Spike, an operation that targets the gangs and cartels in Mexico that facilitate the flow of deadly fentanyl, as well as its analogs and precursors and tools to make the drugs. This operation is the next step in CBP’s Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Drugs, a whole-of-government and international effort to anticipate, identify, mitigate, and disrupt illicit synthetic drug producers, suppliers, and traffickers.
Operation Plaza Spike targets a natural chokepoint in the flow of fentanyl trafficking and will start at the plaza located south of Nogales, Arizona, thereby limiting the amount of illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl, entering the U.S. and the number of illegal weapons headed southbound into the hands of the cartels. From the beginning of fiscal year 2024 to the end of February 2024, CBP has seized 222,000 pounds of drugs, including more than 8,000 pounds of fentanyl. Within this same time period, CBP also seized more than 1,600 weapons and nearly 200,000 rounds of ammunition. For example, during the first two weeks of March 2024, CBP in San Diego stopped 73 different smuggling attempts, seizing 131 pounds of cocaine, 11 pounds of heroin, 10,967 pounds of methamphetamine, and 213 pounds of fentanyl. The total estimated street value of the narcotics was more than $20 million.
The U.S. is plagued with an unprecedented number of overdose deaths, reaching every corner of this country. At the heart of this epidemic is illicit fentanyl – a lethal dose is as small as just 2 milligrams, the size of just a few grains of sand. The drug trade through Mexican “plazas” has accelerated the abuse of synthetic drugs, to include opioids such as fentanyl, its analogues, and heroin, as well as xylazine, methamphetamine, and other chemically synthesized designer drugs.
https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/frontline-against-fentanyl/operation-plaza-spike-fact-sheet?utm_source=hp_slideshow&utm_medium=referral&utm_title=operation_plaza_spike
