Mexican troops seize 140 pounds of fentanyl at U.S. border

Soldiers at a highway checkpoint found over 140 pounds of fentanyl packed in plastic-wrapped bricks hidden behind sheet metal in the floor of a truck trailer. Soldiers also found three bags containing almost 30,000 fentanyl pills. The truck was heading from Mexico City to Tijuana when it was stopped at checkpoint in San Luis Rio Colorado, near Yuma, Arizona.

Another truck was found further west along the border carrying 60.6 pounds of heroin.

Fentanyl has become a favorite of Mexican cartels because it is extremely potent, popular in the United States — and immensely profitable. Mexican cartels are using their own labs to produce the drug, as well as receiving shipments from China. A kilogram of heroin purchased from Colombia for roughly $6,000 can be sold wholesale for $80,000. But a kilogram of pure fentanyl, purchased from China for less than $5,000, can be stretched into 16 to 24 kilograms with cutting agents like talcum powder or caffeine. Each kilogram can then be sold wholesale for $80,000 — for a total profit in the neighborhood of $1.6 million.