CBP, DHS program bolsters opioid detection

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel have partnered with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate as a means of bolstering illegal opioid detection methods.

Synthetic Opioid Detection at Speed (SODAS) began after a report by the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis was released in October 2017. The analysis made several recommendations for the improvement of CBP’s ability to detect opioids.

“This S&T program, which initially focuses on operations at international mail and express consignment facilities, is looking for a layered set of solutions to create efficiencies and provide flexibility in deployment to the existing infrastructure,” Andre Hentz, S&T’s deputy Under Secretary (Acting), said. “Solutions include both detection hardware and advanced analytics.”

The quantity of confiscated synthetic opioids like fentanyl at domestic ports of entry has multiplied over the last six years, per authorities, adding in 2013 the CBP seized only two pounds of fentanyl, but the number grew to 460 pounds in 2016, with seizures of nearly 1,400 pounds in 2017, and more than 1,800 pounds in 2018.

Fentanyl enters the country via two major routes: international mail/express consignment and land borders, which officials said increases the need for upgrading and improving existing screening equipment and developing new solutions.