The days of drug-sniffing dogs aren’t over — but now Customs and Border Protection Agents(CBP) are using AI to track down the precursor chemicals used in fentanyl production in Mexico, to help stop the drug from ever being created.
Why it matters: More than 70,000 Americans died of synthetic opioid overdoses in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
- Finished fentanyl is so small and disguisable that enforcement is close to impossible using traditional methods — like searching the 83 million or so vehicles that have crossed from Mexico in the U.S. so far in 2023.
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