(Video: Fox News)

A Florida sheriff has a grim warning: no matter how far your state is from the southern border, the consequences of President Joe Biden’s reckless and chaotic border policies will soon be at your doorstep.

Sheriff Rick Staley of Flagler County appeared on “Fox & Friends First” to talk about his recent reconnaissance trip to the southern border. He observed that the scarcity of needed resources at the border is affecting the ability of law enforcement to interdict drug shipments into the United States. This, he warned, is impacting even the faraway Sunshine State, as the number of fentanyl seizures increases dramatically in that state.

“What did you learn?” co-host Carley Shimkus asked Sheriff Staley, referencing his recent trip to the border to meet with CBP and DHS staff.

“Well, the border’s completely out of control,” he replied. “The Border Patrol is probably the most demoralized law enforcement agency I’ve seen in my career, and I’ve been doing this for 47 years. They’re basically just paper pushers at this point,” he continued. “They don’t have the staff to be able to interdict the drugs that are coming across the border that are being smuggled by the mules. It’s, uh…it was definitely eye-opening.”

It’s a situation that certainly hasn’t been made any better after news that Biden’s DHS will still punish the falsely-accused CBP agents in last year’s media-confected “whipping” story.

Shimkus then mentioned some of the shocking stories of parents finding their children dead from a fentanyl overdose.

“We’ve talked to so many parents,” she said, “who say they thought their child was in their room, studying or sleeping, and then they open the door, and they find their child dead because of fentanyl poisoning. You’re in Central Florida—have you noticed an uptick in fentanyl-related deaths in your community?”

“We have,” Staley confirmed. “We’ve had this year 12 overdose deaths related to fentanyl, but our fentanyl seizures are up 275% so far this year, the first five months compared to all of last year. So there’s a huge wave coming of fentanyl. Frankly, it’s already here.

“So all my neighboring counties have taken kilos of fentanyl stamped with the Gulf Cartel logo on them. So, it’s here. And, the reality is, is that because the border’s so wide open, Border Patrol’s overwhelmed, that it doesn’t matter if you’re a border town or city or not, because the border is coming to you—to every city, every county in America.”

The sheriff’s stats on the massive increase in fentanyl seizures and overdose deaths is confirmed by other reports, including thousands of overdose deaths in Kentucky and the seizure in Texas of enough fentanyl to kill over 4 million people. CDC records also indicate that the number of drug overdose deaths reached an all-time high last year, topping 107,000.

“So what are you trying to do—what can you do, to try to keep residents in your area safe?” Shimkus asked the sheriff.

“Well, we try to educate the community,” Staley replied. “We investigate every overdose death as a first-degree homicide under Florida law. And I’ve got four poison-peddlers that are in state prison now for selling that lethal dose. So what we want the public to know, and especially the addicts that are using this stuff…they’re basically playing Russian roulette.

“Fentanyl is 50% stronger than heroin, and 80% stronger than morphine. And it’s now being laced and cut…marijuana’s being laced with it, fake pills are being made with fentanyl in it, so that it has the high people are looking for. And you just never now when you get that fatal dose.”

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Todd Jaquith

Staff Writer

"Originally from South Florida, Todd Jaquith now lives in sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico. He holds a degree in Anthropology from Florida Atlantic University."

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