In the ongoing battle against the illicit drug trade, U.S. law enforcement agencies are turning to artificial intelligence to enhance their capabilities, particularly in combating the smuggling of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl across the southern border.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has expanded a $9 million contract with global supply chain startup Altana, leveraging AI technology to track the production and distribution networks of fentanyl.
Fentanyl, a highly potent and dangerous opioid responsible for a significant number of overdose deaths, poses a unique challenge due to its small and easily concealable nature.
“Traditional drug trafficking strategies have not worked for fentanyl,” former CPB Director Ana Hinojosa told Axios, noting the ineffectiveness of drug-sniffing dogs and manual inspections of vehicles.
Experts now believe the incorporation of AI into law enforcement strategies can provide a powerful tool to uncover and disrupt the complex web of fentanyl production.
Altana, a startup that gathers and visualizes data on the global supply chain, aims to be an important asset for helping law enforcement disrupt the fentanyl trade.
The platform utilizes AI to track companies involved in the production of fentanyl’s precursor chemicals, as well as the subsequent shipping of these ingredients.
According to the company’s website, Altana’s AI, called Atlas, creates a dynamic knowledge map that continuously evolves, showcasing the intricate relationships between suppliers and manufacturers.
Importantly, the company works with CBP agents to understand how fentanyl ingredients are assembled and shipped to production sites.
The collaboration is part of a $9 million contract that stemmed from efforts to track forced labor.
As a result of the partnership, CBP agents hope to leverage data to shut down both sides of the drug trafficking operation.
“Drug trafficking was on our minds from the moment we started building the Atlas,” Altana CEO Evan Smith said, adding “it’s just been very hard without AI techniques to understand these illicit obfuscated supply chains.”
Although the exact methodology employed by Altana remains undisclosed, the system relies on publicly available data from 450 million companies and proprietary data from CBP.
The knowledge graph maintained by Altana serves as a digital representation of the global fentanyl supply chain, made up of “billions of transactions, millions of companies and hundreds of millions of unique links,” according to Smith.
CBP has already witnessed tangible results since implementing Altana’s AI technology in July. In two major operations, agents seized 13,000 pounds of fentanyl precursor chemicals and apprehended 284 individuals.
Another operation resulted in the confiscation of 10,000 pounds of finished fentanyl.
However, AI’s role extends beyond tracking precursor chemicals; it also aids in identifying unusual travel patterns of vehicles crossing the border.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas explained the transformative impact of the technology, saying, “AI has changed the game. It can make faster analysis than humans could make alone — spotting changes in trade patterns and participating parties.”
