Expensive Fentanyl Scanners Sit in Warehouses, Unused—Is Congress to Blame?

Many expensive fentanyl scanners are just sitting in warehouses, remaining unused despite the worsening fentanyl overdose crisis in the United States.

In 2022, over 100,000 Americans died because of fentanyl poisoning or overdosage. To prevent unwanted deaths like those caused by fentanyl, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection spent millions of dollars on the most updated fentanyl scanners.

(Photo: JUAN PABLO PINO/AFP via Getty Images)
A fentanyl sample is seen at the Colombian Police Anti-Drug Chemistry Laboratory on August 2, 2023, in Bogota. According to Colombian police, 1384 doses of fentanyl have been seized so far in 2023.

Unfortunately, many of these advanced scanners remain unused because the funds needed to install them are still insufficient. Should the U.S. Congress be blamed for this issue?

Expensive Fentanyl Scanners Sit in Warehouses, Unused

According to NBC News' latest report, acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller shared that numerous expensive fentanyl scanners are just sitting in warehouses.

Troy Miller toured the team of NBC News at a port of entry in Nogales, Arizona. This is the area where half of all the fentanyl at the southern U.S. border is seized.

Miller said that officers stationed in Nogales found fentanyl hidden inside the Coca-Cola. To hide them, violators painted bottles using black paint.

The CBP official also said that they found fentanyl in cars, even those carrying young children in the back seat. He added that around 95% of the fentanyl they seized was carried in private cars.

This is why the advanced fentanyl scanners need to be installed as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the U.S. Congress is partly to blame since the funding needed for the installations is included in the supplemental funding request Republicans blocked.

Is Congress to blame?

(Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) A person uses fentanyl on Park Avenue following the decriminalization of all drugs in downtown Portland, Oregon, on January 23, 2024. When police officer Eli Arnold stops a homeless man smoking methamphetamine on the street in Portland.

In February, Republicans blocked the bipartisan border package, as reported by the Associated Press. This affected the effort of CBP to install the needed fentanyl scanners.

"We do have technology that's in the warehouse that has been tested. But we need approximately $300 million [to] actually put the technology in the ground," explained Miller.

He added that this ongoing issue is extremely frustrating. For those who are not aware, the CBP invested in a new technology called NII (No-Intrusive Inspection).

NII allows CBP personnel to scan cars and trucks passing through the massive U-shaped screeners without requiring drivers and passengers to get out.

These advanced fentanyl scanners were supposed to effectively detect fentanyl while allowing traffic to keep flowing through border checkpoints.

As of writing, the total number of unused fentanyl scanners and their locations are still unknown. But, people familiar with the effort of CBP said that the machines cost tens of millions of dollars.