The five Idaho state police officers dispatched to the United States-Mexico border July 6th are a week into their 21-day mission. Gov. Brad Little said Wednesday one officer has already chased down a suspect on foot who had about 20 fentanyl-laced pills.
“We regularly send our troopers to train and to work with counterparts throughout the United States,” said State Police Colonel Kedrick Wills.
Wills was among several officers from around the state participating in a roundtable discussion with Gov. Little Wednesday about the increase in fentanyl overdoses and deaths in Idaho.
He said law enforcement will be better equipped to handle an increase in illegal drug trafficking here in Idaho because of the work officers are currently doing on the border.
Fentanyl-laced pills made to look like Oxycontin or other drugs are easy and cheap to make, primarily in Mexico.
“This is the third phase of the opiate crisis,” said State Police Coeur D’Alene District Captain John Kempf. “The first phase was legitimate pills that were manufactured by some of the large manufacturers in this country. When the pills went away, that led to the heroin problem that we saw in this country. And that was followed up by fentanyl.”
Gov. Little said ISP’s work at the U.S.-Mexico Border may be repeated if the current mission goes well.
