CBP Officers Seize 18 Pounds of Animal Sedatives From China at Chicago Airport

‘Drug traffickers are persistent in their attempts to smuggle sedatives such as xylazine into the United States,’ a CBP director said.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection patch on the arm of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Mission, Texas, on July 1, 2019. Loren Elliott/Reuters

Federal agents at a Chicago air cargo facility have seized shipments from China containing 18 pounds of xylazine, which is increasingly found in the U.S. illicit drug market.

The three shipments arrived on April 12 and were headed to residences in Cleveland and Philadelphia, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced in a statement on April 16.