Arizona is proving to be a key bridge between deadly drug traffickers and Americans.
Out of the nearly five million fentanyl pills and powder seized in its most recent enforcement action by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), about three million came from Arizona.
The DEA disclosed this discovery within its action, the second phase of Operation Fentanyl Free America, in an exclusive report to ABC15. The second phase occurred from early January to early February.
The 4.7 million fentanyl pills and 3,000 pounds of fentanyl powder amounted to over 57 million deadly doses of fentanyl. The DEA also seized 147,800 pounds of cocaine, 21,000 pounds of meth, over 26 million meth pills, 1,200 pounds of heroin, 65,000 pounds of illicit marijuana, and over 1,500 firearms.
Arizona consistently leads in fentanyl pill seizures, per the DEA. Special Agent in Charge Apolonio Ruiz said Arizona’s border remains very accessible to cartels and their drug traffickers.
“The Sinaloa Cartel, they have tentacles not only on the south side but pushed over here on the north side. They bring cell members here to develop and start shops in these areas and start pushing the drugs into different areas of Arizona,” said Ruiz.
The DEA plans to roll out more phases of Operation Fentanyl Free America, and agents will target other illicit drugs in addition to fentanyl — heroin, meth, and cocaine — as well as the money and equipment used in the criminal enterprise.
In the fall of 2024, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized the largest singular fentanyl seizure in CBP history: approximately four million fentanyl pills.
The seizure weighed over 1,000 pounds.
Last January, three men from Arizona were arrested in Wisconsin over the largest fentanyl seizure in that state’s history. Over 40 pounds of fentanyl disguised as prescription medication were taken. The drugs were estimated to be worth nearly $6 million.
Two of the three men, Dylan and Trevor Hock, were convicted. Dylan received 10 years of prison and 10 years of extended supervision. Trevor also received 10 years in prison. The third man, Jose Gamez, is awaiting trial.
Drug traffickers don’t just use Arizona as a front door to bring in fentanyl and other illicit drugs to the rest of the country.
Fentanyl emerged rapidly during the pandemic as the top drug epidemic in Arizona, then the nation. Fentanyl overtook meth as the deadliest drug in the state. Fentanyl deaths increased by nearly 5,000 percent since 2015.
At present, an average of over three people die every day in Maricopa County due to fentanyl. Similarly, over five people die from opioid overdoses throughout the state, most due to fentanyl.
Last year, there were over 4,900 verified non-fatal opioid overdose events. There were over 2,000 deaths.
The totals for 2025 marked an increase from 2024. Non-fatal opioid overdose events were about 4,000, and there were just under 1,700 opioid deaths.
So far in 2026, there have been over 600 verified non-fatal opioid overdose events and 30 confirmed opioid deaths.
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The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is making no promises on a timeline to come clean on the agency providing intelligence and resources to a known Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker.
After avoiding any commitment to offering any self-imposed deadlines on providing records on the aid, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told lawmakers that she could only give them “hope” and her word for answers.
“I will give you hope, and I will tell you that I will prioritize it,” said Milgram.
The exchange with Milgram occurred during Thursday’s House Judiciary GOP hearing on oversight of the DEA. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) led the hearing and the line of questioning concerning the trafficker: former Mexican secretary of public security Genaro García Luna, who was convicted of his crimes in January.
Biggs asked for a follow-up on Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) two letters sent February and June to the DEA and FBI requesting records on García Luna. Grassley requested recordings of García Luna with dates of their creation and when the DEA became aware; all reports, notes, and other documents relating to García Luna’s criminal activity; content from García Luna’s cell phone and laptop; a detailed explanation of what, when, and how the FBI and DEA knew about García Luna’s corruption and criminal activity; the vetting the FBI and DEA conducted of García Luna, and the persons responsible; and all trial transcripts and exhibits from United States v. García Luna.
“Ignoring Congressional oversight questions relating to the Sinaloa cartel and foreign corruption demonstrates a lack of commitment to bringing criminals to justice,” wrote Grassley in his June letter.
Biggs also asked for copies of the records. Milgram promised to “check on the status of the letter[s].” Biggs then requested a “self-imposed action-item deadline” for the committee, to which Milgram indicated she had no idea how long it would take for the DEA to coordinate with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on obtaining the records.
Biggs pressed again for a timeline, to which Milgram said she could only give him “hope” for answers.
The U.S. Embassy reportedly knew of García Luna’s corruption before receiving a 2008 report filed by a Mexican police commander. The embassy informed the commander that the U.S. was already investigating García Luna. A week later, the commander was arrested and tortured; he was imprisoned for four years before being released.
In 2010, the DEA learned from a key cartel witness that García Luna accepted money from the cartel.
García Luna remained in office until 2012, and wasn’t arrested until December 2019.
Even with ongoing investigations, the federal government provided patrol cars used to transport cocaine, as well as training and equipment for García Luna’s officers who were trafficking the cocaine.
Milgram’s hesitancy to issue a stricter timeline for the records may be related to the ongoing investigation into the administrator for allegedly not having clean hands herself.
The hearing opened with brief acknowledgement of the allegations against Milgram concerning investigations of millions of dollars in outside, no-bid contracts to hire former associates.
The remainder of the hearing focused on DEA efforts to counter and disrupt drug trafficking.
Nearly 100,000 overdoses occurred last year. Drug overdoses, specifically fentanyl overdoses, are the leading cause of death to those aged 18-45. Chief among the increase in overdoses is fentanyl. This type of overdose accounted for 84 percent of overdose deaths in teens.
Milgram described the current drug epidemic as “nothing we’ve ever seen before” — a crisis of unprecedented proportions — and identified fentanyl as the cause. She reported the DEA has developed two counter-threat teams to defeat the primary fentanyl traffickers: the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, both based in Mexico.
“One drug, fentanyl, has transformed the criminal landscape,” said Milgram. “We are actively targeting every aspect of the global fentanyl supply chain.”
A mere two milligrams of fentanyl, equivalent to a few grains of salt, can be lethal. Milgram described fentanyl as cheap to make and easy to disguise as other drugs in order to drive addiction.
In April, the DEA identified the Chapitos network of the Sinaloa cartel as the pioneer and primary manufacturer and trafficker of fentanyl into the U.S. Chinese suppliers, manufacturers in Mexico, and U.S. distributors. 28 members and associates were charged; nine were taken into custody.
In May, the DEA publicized their results of Operation Last Mile: the arrest of 3,337 associates of the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels operating within the U.S. Milgram reported that they rely on social media and encrypted messaging apps for their trafficking.
In June, the DEA announced the outcome of Operation Killer Chemicals: three cases charging four Chinese chemical companies and eight Chinese nationals, four of whom are in custody, with supplying precursor chemicals and scientific knowledge of creating fentanyl. Milgram reported that these charges marked the first of their kind.
Milgram also confirmed that DEA agents are stationed along the southwest border, and in Mexican plazas. Biggs asked what DEA’s role in interdiction at ports of entry along the southwest border; Milgram clarified that the DEA focuses on the border to some degree, but noted that their work covers a global scale.
Biggs indicated that cartels have an easier time trafficking drugs across the border between ports of entry, citing his past solo trips to the border where he could drive for miles without encountering any Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.
“Not most of it comes through ports of entry, you would agree with me that most of it comes through between ports of entry where we don’t have any personnel, we don’t have the one-on-one, we don’t have the capacity to interdict between ports of entry,” said Biggs. “I think too many times people think because we seize a lot at the ports of entry, we forget that there’s a massive, wide open border.”
CBP agents work diligently to seize fentanyl at US ports of entry.
We have no way of knowing how many thousands of pounds of fentanyl are being smuggled into our country between ports of entry.
The surge in deaths from Fentanyl overdoses is overwhelming communities across the country. Fentanyl is responsible for at least 70 percent of all drug deaths in the U.S. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the United States suffered more fentanyl-related deaths than gun- and auto-related deaths combined last year. And it is the number one cause of death among U.S. adults, aged 18-45.
Here in Arizona, the Fentanyl crisis is particularly acute. Fentanyl flows easily into our state across our southern border. Until Washington gets serious about controlling it, Arizona has to take decisive action now to disrupt the supply lines of the drug cartels.
In the rush to “do something” about this very real crisis, some well-intentioned legislators have proposed HB2167, which would spend precious law enforcement resources on seeking murder sentences for individual sellers rather than going after large traffickers. Certainly, we want to punish those who support their drug habit by selling small amounts of Fentanyl, and current Arizona law sends a person who provides illicit drugs to prison for up to 25 years. That is a substantial sentence.
HB2167 would go further so that if a person dies after receiving the drugs – even if it is not “the immediate cause of death” – the person who gave them the drug would be sentenced by the judge as a murderer.
This is problematic because the cartels often press Fentanyl into pills to make them like prescription pills. They do this because Fentanyl is cheaper than the ingredients of the real prescription drugs. And profit is what motivates the cartels. Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor who tracks the opioid crisis wrote, “You don’t need land, good weather, peasant labor, processing of crops, etc. Instead, you can whip it up in a small lab, and every gram is 50 times as strong as heroin.”
It is impossible for a buyer to know if the drugs they buy also contain Fentanyl. HB2167 calls for sentencing the person who gave or sold these ersatz drugs as a murderer even if they were unaware that Fentanyl had been added. That could result in real injustice.
Take for example, your daughter goes away to college and falls in with friends who enjoy getting high. If she gave a pill to a friend who later died, your daughter could be sentenced as a murderer without the state having to prove that the drug caused the death! Certainly, your child deserves to be punished, and she can be imprisoned for up to 25 years without HB2167. But it would be wrong to punish her as a murderer with a much longer sentence.
The DEA’s top priorities are interdicting the traffic in Fentanyl and prosecuting the large drug trafficking organizations. But by including “small fish” as I explained above, HB2167 in its current form puts Arizona out of step with the DEA’s priorities. The House Judiciary Committee should amend HB2167 so that it aligns with the DEA by targeting resources to taking down the leaders of the large distribution networks, and putting them out of business. That is the most effective way to make our communities safer.
Pat Nolan lives in Prescott and is the founder of the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Nolan Center for Justice. He is a respected national leader on crime issues.
