Former DEA Special Operations Director Derek Maltz weighs in after drug traffickers were caught with 15,000 fentanyl pills disguised as candy.

FIRST ON FOX – A memo circulating among Senate Republicans this week details how the fentanyl crisis continues to worsen across U.S.

communities as southern border drug seizures and encounters reach record highs.

Those who have witnessed activity at the border believe the crisis at the border and the fentanyl crisis are correlated.

of the deadly drug in 2021, and seizures have already surpassed 12,000 lbs.

CBP agents seized an unprecedented 10,500 pounds of the deadly drug in 2021, and seizures have already surpassed 12,000 pounds this year.

31 the Biden administration has seen a "200% increase of fentanyl seizures, which means that we are … doing the job of catching drug traffickers.".

FENTANYL AWARENESS GROUP ASKS BIDEN ADMIN TO TRACK POISONING, OVERDOSE DEATHS LIKE COVID-19 DEATHS.

But with the increase in fentanyl seizures comes an increase in fentanyl coming into the country.

In 2021, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported seizing more than 15,000 pounds of substances containing fentanyl and more than 20.4 million fentanyl-laced prescription pills.

life expectancy fell to its lowest point since 1996 in 2021 with 10% of the decline attributed to drug overdoses.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said in a February press release that the "unprecedented overdose epidemic" claims about 275 American lives per day.

Disguising the opioid is an attempt by drug traffickers to hook kids on to the highly addictive opioid and make more money.

through the southern border, according to the DEA.

FAF founder Jim Rauh, who lost his son to fentanyl poisoning, described the fentanyl crisis to Fox News Digital earlier this month as "a slow-motion chemical weapon attack … that's being perpetrated by China and a third opium war.".

That's after fentanyl poisoning deaths doubled in 30 states between 2019 and 2021, according to another FAF analysis.

New Hampshire overdose deaths have increased a whopping 29% between April 2021 and April of this year, according to the CDC.

But Marshall, who visited the border, and other Republicans are questioning why President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his designated border czar, have not visited the southern border since taking office

"Anything we can do to fight fentanyl poisoning — this epidemic — I'm for it," Marshall said

"The fact that we are securing record levels of funding from DHS so they can stop illicit drugs from entering into the country — the fact that it’s not just drug traffickers that we’re dealing with … we’re stopping … financiers.  This is what’s happening … under this administration."

"We are pushing forward advanced technologies, as I mentioned earlier, to try to alleviate some of the strain on the manpower down there on the southern border

Experts recommend people who use any kind of drug carry Narcan, a lifesaving medicine also known as naloxone, which has the ability to reverse symptoms of an overdose and potentially save lives, according to Family First Intervention