Sheriff John Nowels: Cartel-fueled fentanyl crisis is flooding Washington through our northern border

In a recent interview, the FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed what local law enforcement across Washington has known for years: The fentanyl crisis is no longer just a southern border issue.

Precursor chemicals are being shipped from China to Canada and the U.S. – often through Vancouver – and then smuggled down across our porous 427-mile northern border into the U.S., right through Washington.

Patel emphasized that this isn’t just the work of scattered criminals – it’s a coordinated, transnational operation involving Chinese chemical suppliers, Mexican cartels and a vulnerable northern border. The FBI is now partnering with global allies like India to intercept precursors and disrupt this deadly supply chain.

What many don’t realize is that Washington has a long, painful history of being a central staging ground for cartel activity. This isn’t just a transit state – we’ve been home base.

Consider the Sinaloa Cartel’s Zazueta-Bueno network, which once operated out of the Tri-Cities. Its leader, Adolfo Zazueta-Bueno, lived in Washington before fleeing to Mexico to continue directing a multistate pipeline of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin. His son, Brian Jesus Zazueta, was sentenced in October 2024 to more than 13 years in federal prison for distributing more than 42,000 fentanyl pills from a Kennewick stash house. As Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Baunsgard put it, “For a decade, every drug case here traces back to ‘Bueno dope.’ ” That’s the scale of it.

Just two months ago, a Jalisco cartel operative was convicted on federal trafficking charges for running fentanyl, heroin, meth and cocaine into Eastern Washington. And in 2023, Customs and Border Protection seized enough fentanyl at northern ports to potentially kill nearly 9.5 million Americans. That’s not hyperbole – it reflects the terrifying potency of shipments flowing north-to-south through Washington.

In Spokane County alone, law enforcement seized more than 150,000 fentanyl pills in 2024 – more than triple what was recovered just two years earlier. Overdose deaths have also more than doubled locally since 2019, claiming lives in every ZIP code and across every age group.

Cartels don’t just make money off drugs – they operate like multinational crime syndicates. Their funding comes from a web of illegal enterprises: illicit Chinese-made vapes, untaxed tobacco, counterfeit pills, human smuggling and money laundering. Each of these is designed to move cash, hide profits and feed their fentanyl production pipeline.

The same chemical precursors used to make fentanyl are shipped from China to Canadian ports, then trafficked south through Washington. Cartels use our ports, highways and rural border crossings not just to move product – but to move cash, components and contraband.

That means every fake pill, every illicit flavored vape, every unlicensed shipment is part of something bigger. It’s not petty crime – it’s a revenue stream for a lethal network operating in our backyard.

The most heartbreaking toll is on our children. Neonatal abstinence syndrome – caused by prenatal exposure to opioids – has surged in Washington. In 2021, our statewide NAS rate was 10.3 per 1,000 births, while the national average was 6.2 per 1,000. That year the rate in Spokane County was 13.1 per 1,000 births. Alarmingly, Spokane County’s rate jumped to 21.1 per 1,000 births in 2022.

That means 1 in 50 babies born here is already addicted and suffering withdrawal symptoms – tremors, seizures, feeding difficulties–from the moment they take their first breath. This isn’t a statistic. It’s a scream from the NICU that we should no longer ignore.

As sheriff, I’m urging state and federal leaders to respond with the seriousness this threat demands:

• Close our northern vulnerability: Washington’s border crossings and ports need more agents, better technology and real-time coordination with counterparts.

• Cut the cartel supply chain: Target the precursor chemical from China, disrupt money laundering operations tied to illicit vapes and tobacco, and use sanctions to pressure complicit foreign entities.

• Fund local enforcement: Ensure our sheriff’s offices and local police departments have enough manpower, equip local agencies with forensic labs, cyber tools, and task forces to dismantle cartel cells and follow financial trails.

• Protect our most vulnerable: Expand maternal addiction programs, neonatal care funding and long-term support for NAS-affected children and families.

• Roll back anti-law enforcement legislation: Restore public safety and support officers doing their jobs effectively

• Reintroduce accountability in our justice system: For too long, we have been soft on crime in Washington state, particularly where narcotics enforcement is concerned. We need real consequences for those who choose to traffic narcotics in our neighborhoods.

From Kennewick to Spokane to Seattle, cartel fingerprints are on every overdose, every trafficked pill and every grieving family. The flow of fentanyl and related drugs isn’t just persistent – it’s intentional, coordinated and deeply entrenched in our state. If we fail to act boldly now, we’re surrendering our communities to networks that trade in death for profit.

We will not back down. Not in our communities. Not in Washington. The safety of our children and the future of our neighborhoods depend on it.

Sheriff John Nowels has over 20 years of experience in law enforcement and is the current Spokane County Sheriff. He is also the President of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.