America's ‘open’ southern border is emboldening drug cartels to flood America with fentanyl, Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn tells Glenn. He describes the SHOCKING amounts of it seized by officials in Dallas/Fort Worth and the even larger amounts seized at the border. But this crisis goes far beyond fentanyl. In fact, Sheriff Waybourn describes how President Biden’s border MESS continues to empower cartels in several other ways, too…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So a guy running for the governor. The governor's office here in Texas, is Beto. Yeah. He's back. Beto O'Rourke. Here's what he says about the border, and title 42.
VOICE: But I want to turn our attention to title 42. You don't think it's a good idea for the Biden administration to end title 42. Why?
BETO: No. I think it's time to end Title 42. I don't think we should ever have implemented it. It's a very cynical reading of U.S. law.
GLENN: It's very cynical. This, by the way, the one thing that has kept the border -- I can't even say halfway sane. Not just being overrun all the time. Because this was a covid thing. We got to make sure, that we're not letting everybody in. That didn't matter. But we're now talked about the possibility of allowing 16,000 people in every day.
That's a pretty big number.
Sheriff Bill Waybourn is the Tarrant County sheriff. That's with Fort Worth. And we were talking -- we were at Chuck Norris' place doing a fundraiser just last week. Sheriff, welcome, how are you?
BILL: I'm great, sir. And, Glenn, it's so good to be with you.
GLENN: So I talk to you, Bill, at the fundraiser. And we were talking about -- I mean, I'm always fun at a party. And we were talking about fentanyl, and the problems with drugs. And you told me some stories that melted the skin off my face. About the amount of fentanyl that is coming off right now.
BILL: It is an incredible, copious amounts that had came in. And right here, in the Dallas Fort Worth area are great narcotics team, and interdiction teams. Enough right here to kill almost 800,000 people. And that would give them fatal doses. Our DPS, who has done an incredible job on the border, under Steve McGraw, has seized enough fentanyl down there to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States of America.
GLENN: Wait. Wait.
BILL: We're having enough --
GLENN: Enough fentanyl to kill everyone in this country?
BILL: Yes, sir.
And pounds and pounds and pounds of that dope. And it's cheap dope. Because it's a synthetic heroin, that's markedly more addictive. And markedly more dangerous.
GLENN: And that's just what we've caught.
BILL: Exactly.
GLENN: What do you suppose is coming through and getting through.
BILL: Well, I think a conservative estimate is, is that we're probably getting about one-third at the conservative estimate.
GLENN: Oh, my.
BILL: And that means that probably two-thirds have gotten the cross, and have gotten away from us.
GLENN: So is there any doubt in your mind, what's causing all of these overdose deaths?
BILL: Not at all. And we're losing -- at my last briefing was about 300 people a day. A jumbo jet a day of people going down, and dying of fentanyl. And often time, first time users.
GLENN: So where is the bulk of this going? Does it stay here? Is it evenly distributed? Do you have any idea?
BILL: We believe that the cartel, who are incredible businessmen, are using the routes of all other folks that are using the major highways. And the hubs are going to be the major cities; i.e. Houston and Dallas and Fort Worth. And then it's splitting out and going across the country. So what is affecting us here is Maine and Middlesex Massachusetts or New York or LA. But it may have very well come through Dallas, Fort Worth, to get their --
GLENN: Which does what to our community? I mean, I found out a couple of years ago, that in my general neighborhood, there either was or still is, a guy from the cartel. That owns a house. Right in my neighborhood.
And when I found that out from some neighbors. I was like, wait a minute. What?
BILL: Well, we know that the cartels here. Because we have some of them in the Tarrant County jail, and we believe that there are decision makers here. And I would like to add that this fentanyl is indiscriminate. It's going into the gated communities, as well as into the at-risk areas. At-risk neighborhoods. It is indiscriminate.
GLENN: Do you remember the crack problem of the '80s?
BILL: I very well do.
GLENN: Yeah. Can you compare that problem, which was the number one story every night for years, can you compare those two?
BILL: Absolutely. Is that fentanyl, is going to be crack, absolutely on triple steroids.
Because there's no room for error. We believe that four out of ten pills, could be fatal.
GLENN: Jeez.
So you're rolling -- you're almost at 50/50. Rolling the dice. That you will survive?
BILL: That is correct.
GLENN: And are any of these coming from -- you know, are they being stolen from major pharmaceuticals? Or is this all stuff that's just being made across our border?
BILL: It is all being made, the cartel has said up in their own pill press. They're imitating Oxycontin. They're imitating ADD drugs like Adderall. And pain pills. In fact, there's one sheriff that's a friend that shared a story last time I visited. They were working a fentanyl death, where a young college kid just wanted to stay up and study for exams. Not a drug user at all, and a friend offered him Adderall. He took it, ten minutes later, he was dead.
GLENN: And I read a story yesterday. I think it was in the New York Times. And they were talking about the drug overdoses.
That are happening. And they blamed it on China. That China was shipping a lot of this, I don't know. In what ghost containers.
Maybe along with the ghost guns. You know, they're -- they're shipping them in these containers. And we're getting the major portion of our fentanyl drug problem, from China.
Do you believe that?
BILL: Well, I believe that there is some coming from China to -- directly to the United States. No question about that. But the majority of what we're seeing in Texas, has come from China. Through even Venezuela. And Mexico. Up through the cartel routes. Because it's an open border. It's an easy path.
GLENN: So it might actually be coming -- it might be produced in China. But it's coming through the cartels on an open border?
BILL: That's correct. Ghana to Venezuela to Mexico. And it's weaponization. I believe that the cartel knows very well, that this will kill people. And they're not worried about that. They're very accepting of the casualties.
GLENN: How much have we emboldened these crime syndicates down at the border. They have to be making money hand over fist, not only in drugs. But also human trafficking. And then getting people across the border, that isn't the stereotypical, you know, human trafficking. It's just, I'll provide a boat to go over the river.
BILL: Well, I think they're incredibly emboldened. And I think they've opened borders. And they're on both sides of that river. They own -- across the border. They certainly have pockets. And they know what they're doing. And they know what their odds are. And it's a lot better than Vegas. And they're rolling the dice every day.
GLENN: And the consequences of opening this up, even more? By, you know, getting rid of title 42?
BILL: I think it's -- that's the last arrow in our quiver.
And I think that will embolden them. And we will see herds of them coming across. And we will see more human trafficking. And absolutely overwhelming our border counties.
And I think soon, we will see them showing up everywhere.
GLENN: I have a -- a family member, that lives in a border town.
And, you know. At Easter, she said, the town is just being destroyed. She says, you know, a very small number of people that live there. And very soon, we are going to be outnumbered. By people that -- that don't speak our language. They -- they have nothing to do with America, or our town. And they're going to be the ones, that are in the -- the majority, and we're paying for everything.
BILL: That is absolutely right. And also people think, well, is this the Mexicans? It is not. It is partially Mexican. But these come from 150 countries. And you're absolutely right.
My border law enforcement friends tell me that pursuits are up in the last year, by 400 percent.
GLENN: What does that mean?
BILL: That means that law enforcement chases hot pursuits, as you can dramatically think about, as cars going code three and trying to catch the bad guy, had gone up 400 percent, along the border.
And so they're chasing people every day. In every direction. And they believe that they're only, at best, getting a fourth to maybe a third.
GLENN: The White House said yesterday, that, you know, the 23 terrorists. The people that were on the terror watch list, that were caught. That that's the most, that has been caught.
I mean, that has been -- that's crossed the border. At most, it was 23.
There's no logic to that. Can you -- do you know anything about these 23? How serious these guys were?
BILL: I do not know. I'm looking forward to learning about them. And hopefully, we'll have that information sooner than later. I think you said this earlier. We're watching 23. And we're catching a third. How much does that mean, that really got across.
GLENN: One last question. Ghost guns. How much of a problem are ghost guns?
BILL: Well, I can only relate to our experience, at Tarrant County sheriff's office. And there's not one that's come across my desk on ghost guns. Or any issue against ghost guns.
GLENN: All right. So I'm glad we got that taken care of. Jeez.
All right. Sheriff, thank you very much. I live in your county. I live in Tarrant County. And I am so glad. I voted for you. And I'm so grad that you're the sheriff. Because you are -- you are no nonsense. Thank you so much.
BILL: Thank you, sir. It's an honor to have you as a constituent.
GLENN: You got it. Sheriff way born. If you don't know your sheriff, get to know your sheriff. You know, one of the things I said to them. What happens if they decide, that citizens can't have guns?
His response: I'll just deputize everybody in the county. Okay. You got my vote.
