Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed an executive order Tuesday to combat cartels and stop drug smuggling and human trafficking at the state’s border.
The order creates a joint task force called Operation Desert Guardian to expand border security operations in the state’s four border counties, Yuma, Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.
Hobbs, a Democrat, said the order allows her administration to work with the federal government and local sheriffs to “keep criminals and drugs out of Arizona’s communities.”
“I look forward to continued partnership on our shared border security priorities,” Hobbs said in an X post.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said that Mexican cartels are “at the heart” of a synthetic narcotics crisis in the United States, but Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has said authorities have found no proof that fentanyl is being produced in the country.
The State Department designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations last week and President Trump cited the deadly illegal flow of opioids as one of the main reasons for a planned 25% tariff on Mexican goods. Mr. Trump agreed to pause the tariffs for one month after Sheinbaum agreed to send 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to combat the flow of fentanyl.
Arizona shares a 370-mile southern border with Mexico, according to the governor’s office. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they seized 5,585 pounds of fentanyl at the border in January and said in 2024 that 66% of the fentanyl seized entering the U.S. was caught in Arizona.
Out of the top six districts for fentanyl trafficking offenses, Arizona ranked second in the nation after the Southern District of California in 2023, the U.S. Sentencing Commission said in a report on fentanyl trafficking.
Hobbs said the task force will be funded with a portion of the $28 million balance in Arizona’s border security fund.
State officials said they seized 1,750 pounds of methamphetamine and fentanyl in January during a major drug bust.
“Fentanyl and methamphetamine are devastating our communities, and we will not tolerate the trafficking of these deadly substances in Arizona,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement last month.
