The California Highway Patrol has seized more than 40 pounds of fentanyl within a 10-block radius of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood since May 1, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said.
The number equates to nine million lethal doses worth of fentanyl seized since the state embarked on its joint public safety partnership with the City of San Francisco, Just The News reported.
CHP has issued over 4,468 citations, resulting in 428 arrests for illegal activity.
“We’re cleaning up San Francisco’s streets,” Newsom said.
“Working alongside our local and federal partners, the CHP is seizing more drugs and more illegal guns and providing the safety and security every Californian deserves.”
The San Francisco operation has deployed multiple teams of officers in Tenderloin and its surrounding areas.
The state announced it was doubling its CHP officer presence in San Francisco, creating a joint law enforcement task force to investigate opioid-related deaths.
CHP contributes to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s “Operation Surge” and other locally-led operations against drug traffickers.
The operation in San Francisco has help from the California National Guard (CalGuard), the California Department of Justice, the San Francisco Police Department, and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
The release said:
“The joint effort is focused on improving public safety, targeting fentanyl trafficking, disrupting the supply of the deadly drug in the city, and holding the operators of drug trafficking rings accountable,” a release said.
The operation is part of a broader plan to tackle the Fentanyl and Opioid Crisis.
The plan includes expanding CalGuard-supported operations that contributed to a 594% increase in fentanyl seized.
Earlier this year, Republican Senator Tim Scott slammed the Biden administration for the appalling conditions of the southern border, highlighting the deaths of 70,000 Americans who have lost their lives to fentanyl.
Scott made the remarks during an interview with Fox News while visiting the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday.
“The biggest difference between 2019 and now, two words: Joe Biden,” Scott said.
“When you have a president who unleashes a wide open, unsafe, insecure border, we cannot be surprised by more than six million illegal crossings,” he added.
“However, the devastation of 70,000 Americans who lost their lives to fentanyl because Joe Biden refuses to close our southern border,” Tim Scott continued.
“Preventable. As President of the United States, I will finish this wall, and I will use the available technology to surveil our border to stop fentanyl from killing another 70,000 Americans in the next 12 months.”
Scott also said that he was informed by local law enforcement that the surge in illegal immigration has devastated their communities.
“The devastation that we are experiencing as Americans is preventable — much of it is preventable if we finish the wall, use technology, fire Joe Biden, and hire me,” he said.
WATCH: Joe Biden Blasted for Laughing While Discussing Mother’s Sons Fentanyl Deaths
