Dan Crenshaw Instagram – Most people think fentanyl only comes to the US in its final form as the deadly poison killing tens of thousands of Americans each year. That used to be the case, but President Trump got China to crack down on illegal fentanyl exports. But Chinese suppliers still illegally export the precursor chemicals for fentanyl. Most people think those go straight to Mexico but the reality is much of it comes straight to the US right here through LA. These precursors are hidden in legitimate commercial cargo and make their way to Mexico, where they are combined to make fentanyl and pressed into pills. CBP has to find these chemicals somehow, while competing with high volume, time constraints, and forged manifests. They’re finding a lot, but not everything. And it doesn’t help when dozens of their agents have to go deal with the crisis at the southern border. So what can be done? Simple changes to law — like higher penalties for falsified manifests — can start to crack down on those fueling the crisis. Let’s start there.