EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two state police officers in Chihuahua, Mexico, are recovering in a hospital after becoming ill while conducting a drug seizure.
The two unnamed officers entered a home late in Chihuahua City last week to arrest drug suspects and found a bag in a room with a substance they initially identified as powdered cocaine. They touched the bag, which likely was tainted with drug residue, and remained in the room for some time, Mexican police officials said.
“The moment they came into contact with it – and there have been instances even in the United States where first responders inhale spores and powder in the air – they experienced an overdose,” Chihuahua State Police Chief of Staff Luis Aguirre said on Monday. “Fortunately, the officers received immediate assistance. They were taken to a hospital and are recuperating.”
This is the first publicly reported case in northern Mexico of first responders or police officers overdosing on fentanyl in the line of duty.
Border security experts say fentanyl is considered an export drug in Mexico, though some distribution and sales in northern border cities has been reported.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and that can kill at doses of 2 milligrams and above, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers this fiscal year have seized 10,926 pounds of fentanyl, mostly at border crossings opposite Mexican cities such as Juarez, Tijuana and Reynosa. That’s about half as much as was seized in 2024, as the U.S. and Mexican governments put pressure on cartels known to smuggle the drugs into the United States.
Chihuahua Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya said state officers’ basic training includes the proper handling of drugs during searches and seizures, including the use of latex gloves. But, because of the incident, 500 officers throughout the state will take “Part 2” of the training starting on Monday, he said.
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