Montana’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen was on Friday’s Talk Back show and began with a riveting story of his trip to the southern border, that included methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and the cartels.

“What is terrifying is they showed us some graphics that literally every inch of that southern border in Texas is controlled by cartels, about eight of them,” said Knudsen.  “It's all mapped out. It's all known territories on the south side of the Rio Grande who's in charge of what and more terrifying; nothing happens at that border. Nothing comes through that border without the cartels, A, say so and B, them getting a cut.”

Knudsen also made a startling claim related to the massive drug epidemic flowing through the southern border.

“The stat that just came out recently that shocked me the most was this,” he said. “In the entire US if you are an adult from ages 18 to 50 the number one most likely cause of death is not COVID, it’s not cancer, it’s not car crashes and it’s not heart disease; it's fentanyl overdose.”

Knudsen said he went to the southern border because as Roosevelt County Attorney and now as Montana’s Attorney General, he wanted to see the epidemic of drugs coming into Montana for himself.

“Why have I gotten so involved in all these border lawsuits?” he asked. “Well, this is why. We've got Mexican cartel methamphetamine, we've got Mexican cartel heroin. We've got Mexican cartel fentanyl flooding into Montana. Just a week ago I got a report about three Guatemalan nationals in the country illegally who were pulled over on a highway patrol stop. They had eight pounds of methamphetamine. Obviously, everyone's innocent till proven guilty, but that is a gargantuan amount of methamphetamine.”

Knudsen said the crime rate in Montana has grown exponentially with the introduction of drugs from the southern border.

“We're seeing just massive increases in violent crime in the state,” he said. “We all see it, but the numbers back it up. What are we talking about with border control stats? All of our violent crime rates in the last four or five years? They're all up 40, 50 or even 60 percent. This is scary stuff, and it's all coming from the southern border. Period. That's why I was down there.”

Knudsen spoke to KGVO listeners on a variety of subjects, from the southern border, to the Montana Highway Patrol to the state’s Motor Vehicle licensing division.

 

 

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