2023 General News Story

Caption: A body of a man in his 50s was found along Mission Beach in San Diego, California, Saturday, November 12, 2022. Lt. Ken Impellizeri of San Diego Police and officers believe it was a fatal overdose of fentanyl after examining the crime scene. Across the road, bars were filled with people partying who were unaware of a person who overdosed.

Story Summary: Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49. During the past seven years, as soaring quantities of fentanyl flooded into the United States, strategic blunders and cascading mistakes by successive U.S. administrations allowed the most lethal drug crisis in American history to become significantly worse. The Department of Homeland Security, whose agencies are responsible for detecting illegal drugs at the nation’s borders, failed to ramp up scanning and inspection technology at official crossings, instead channeling $11 billion toward the construction of a border wall that does little to stop fentanyl traffickers. Across the border in Tijuana, Mexico, it has long been a major transit point for illicit goods into the U.S. Now, it is a city of fentanyl. It is the most prolific trafficking hub in the United States for the drug and, increasingly, a city of users. There have been over 1,900 homicides in 2022, making it the deadliest city in Mexico. Seizing labs and narcotics would be a monumental task for any law enforcement agency. But in parts of Mexico, where organized crime often has more power than the government, the more important question has become: Are authorities even trying?

Deportees who have become addicted to fentanyl smoke it in the Zona Norte neighborhood of Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, October 20, 2022. The chaos has spilled outward across Tijuana. There have been 1,900 homicides here this year so far, making it the deadliest city in Mexico. It is a place where language has adapted to new forms of violence, macabre and hyper-specific. The word “encobijado,” for instance: is a murder victim wrapped in a blanket.

Makai Adams, 20, center, along with his fellow EMT try to save a woman in her 30s outside her apartment after she overdosed on what they think is fentanyl in San Diego, California, Friday, November 11, 2022. “It’s has been crazy in San Diego’s downtown,” said Adams. “I see at least 6 to 7 overdoses a night.” The Drug Enforcement Administration, the country’s premier anti-narcotics agency, stumbled through a series of missteps as it confronted the biggest challenge in its 50-year history. The agency was slow to respond as Mexican cartels supplanted Chinese producers, creating a massive illicit pharmaceutical industry that is now producing more fentanyl than ever.

Members of Medik 2000, a volunteer group of medics assist a man that was beaten up and tied to a poll in the Miramar neighborhood of Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, October 20, 2022. The volunteer group believes the man was a drug user and his injury is associated with a deal that went wrong. Propelling that violence is a shift in the drug trade. Tijuana has long been a major transit point for illicit goods into the United States: alcohol during Prohibition, and waves of marijuana, and cocaine after that. Now, it is a city of fentanyl. It is the most prolific trafficking hub in the United States for the drug and, increasingly, a city of users. It is their lifeless bodies that paramedics find on the streets. They are just as frequently victims of overdoses as violence. The turf war between local drug dealers has provoked a nightly shock of killings.

Officials from the Mexican attorney general’s office raided the home of a suspected human smuggler and drug trafficker on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, July 28, 2022. The suspects appear to have fled before law enforcement agents arrived. The shift in fentanyl production from China to Mexico in the past several years has flooded the border with synthetic drugs. Seizing labs and narcotics would be a monumental task for any law enforcement agency. But in parts of Mexico, where organized crime often has more power than the government, the more important question has become: Are authorities even trying?

San Diego Narcotic Enforcement Team SDNET allows German Alonzo to say goodbye to his son as he was arrested in a raid of a large methamphetamine seizure after his car was flagged for carrying drugs by a K9 and scans at the border crossing in San Diego, California, Wednesday, July 20, 2022. The Department of Homeland Security, whose agencies are responsible for detecting illegal drugs at the nation’s borders, failed to ramp up scanning and inspection technology at official crossings, instead channeling $11 billion toward the construction of a border wall that does little to stop fentanyl traffickers.

Officials from Mexico’s attorney general’s office unload hundreds of pounds of fentanyl and meth seized near Ensenada in October at their headquarters in Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, October 18, 2022. No one was arrested in connection with the seizure. The government’s garage of seized narcotics, federal authorities say, is proof of their efforts to stop the flow of drugs and secure evidence for ongoing trials. It fills so quickly that once a month, to make more room, they take thousands of pounds of drugs to a desolate military outpost and set them on fire.

San Diego Police officers try to revive a woman who overdosed on fentanyl in San Diego, California, Friday, November 11, 2022. The woman was revived and transported to a nearby hospital.

Jose Gonzalez, who was deported after growing up in California, shoots fentanyl with a friend in the Zona Norte neighborhood of Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, October 21, 2022. José grew up in San Bernadino and remained in Tijuana after being deported to be close to his daughter in California. He woke up next to a pile of trash two blocks from the U.S.-Mexico border, on a patch of sidewalk that has been claimed by this city’s fentanyl addicts, almost all of them deportees from the United States. It was a Friday morning. Children in their school uniforms walked by José’s encampment on their way to school. He had just enough fentanyl to avoid the ache of withdrawal. Because he’d run out of visible veins, he asked a friend to inject the needle into his neck. He bent down to receive it and put his hands on his knees while the high rushed in. In another five hours, he would be strung out, hurting for another hit. He needed to make 100 pesos (about $5) to buy enough drugs to fill another syringe. He started loading his backpack full of scavenged items to sell in downtown Tijuana: iPhone cases, a calculator, a dictionary, and a used pair of shorts. “Why would my daughter want to visit her drug-addict father?” he asked. She had visited him once and never came back. “What the hell am I doing here?”

Locals watch as members of Medik 2000, a volunteer group of medics and firefighters assist a man that was injured during a hit and run in the Nueva Aurora neighborhood of Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, October 20, 2022. The neighborhood is known for violent acts connected to gangs and cartel activity.

An area where it’s known for human and drug trafficking along the U.S. Mexico border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, July 30, 2022. The view shows how close some of the most violent neighborhoods are to the border with the U.S.

Emmanuel Ibarra, head of the attorney general’s tactical unit in Tijuana, left, and Daniel Espinoza Alcántara, head of the country’s attorney general’s office in northwestern Mexico, stand along other officials from the Mexican attorney general’s office as they burn thousands of pounds of drugs, including tens of thousands of counterfeit fentanyl pills, at a military outpost near Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, July 28, 2022. The burnings now occur about once a month as more drugs are seized.

Luis Miguel Arias, 28, takes a break, exhausted, next to his daughter Melisa, 4 years old, while climbing a hill at the Darien Gap, between Colombia and Panama. Luis Miguel crossed the Gap with his two kids, his wife and a friend. Nowadays he is stuck in Central America.

A group of migrants stops on a hill during the second day of hike through the Darien Gap

çngel Garc’a helping Sarah over fallen trees in the DariŽn. The morning Sarah and her mother were set to climb the Hill of Death, Ms. Cuauro had asked a friend she had made on the journey, çngel Garc’a, 42, to help carry her daughter.
Almost the moment they had left Capurgan‡, Ms. CuauroÕs boots had begun to grind at her skin, and her feet were now so blistered and filled with pus she could barely walk.
Mr. Garc’a, who had left his own 6-year-old son at home in Colombia, hoisted Sarah on his shoulders, looking back constantly for her mother.
Eventually, he turned around and she was gone.

Jheymmi Bastidas, Hamlet OrtegaÕs wife, treated her stepdaughter HamleisyÕs injured foot while HamleisyÕs sisters Adriannys, left, and Hamleisky, right, looked on.

A man with a food delivery bag walking in the jungle at the Darien Gap. Some of the migrants walking in the jungle to reach the United States try to work in other Latinamerican countries, but collapsing economies did not offer them enough income to allow them to stay

During several days of trek, Gabriel Infante, in the center with red shorts, grabbed by the hand of Francheska lopez, 6 years old. Even when she was not her daughter, he helped her during several days and sang her kids songs to keep her entertained during the long walks at the Darien Gap.

Yordy Jose Chino sat on a rock at a river while kissing his nephew Mat’as Smith Sanchez, the baby were just one month old while crossing the Darien Gap trying to reach the United States.

A group of people share the las sip of water from a muddy bottle, while climbing the Banderas hill into the Darien Gap.

A human chain of migrants crossing river Tacart’ at the Darien Gap, they help each other to prevent drowning in the fast water after several days walking in the jungle between Colombia and Panama

A dead man with hands and neck tied together lays in the path of the Darien Gap inside a tent. The number of people who died during their attempt to cross the Darien Gap is unknow for Colombians and Panamanian authorities.

Hamlet Ortega break down in tears next to the Tacart’ River after getting out of food and water, he were walking during several days in the jungle with his three daughters, Adriannys 8, Hamleisy 13 and Hamleisy 15 years old, attempting to cross the Darien Gap, between Colombia and Panama.

Sebastian Colmenares, 8 years old cries while hearing a speech from the indigenous leader at the El Abuelo community, the first indigenous town migrants find after crossing the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama. Behind him, his brother Juan Colmenares 10 years old and their mother Enlgymar Galinde also crying from a mix of feelings after exiting the jungle.

This series chronicles the ongoing war in Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The invasion has likely resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II, with an estimated 8 million people being displaced within the country by late May as well as 7.6 million Ukrainians fleeing the country as of October 2022. The invasion has also caused global food shortages.

Nadiya Trubchaninova, 70, cries while holding the coffin of her son Vadym, 48, who was killed by Russian soldiers last March 30 in Bucha, during his funeral in the cemetery of Mykulychi, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022. After nine days since the discovery of Vadym's corpse, finally Nadiya could have a proper funeral for him. This is not where Nadiya Trubchaninova thought she would find herself at 70 years of age, hitchhiking daily from her village to the shattered town of Bucha trying to bring her son's body home for burial.

A woman walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022.

Volunteers load on a truck corpses of civilians killed in Bucha to be taken to a morgue for investigation, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 12, 2022.

A dog paces by a wheelbarrow that holds the carcass of another dog that had been shot, in the courtyard of a home in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022.

A Ukrainian soldier celebrates in a check point in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022.

Tanya Nedashkivs'ka, 57, mourns the death of her husband, killed in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022.

The corpse of a man is seen in the basement of a house in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022.

A man poses for the picture wearing a mask of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while a Ukrainian soldier stands on top of a destroyed Russian tank in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 7, 2022.

A Ukranian soldier eyes a soccer ball during a pick-up game in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022.

The hand of a corpse buried along with other bodies is seen in a mass grave in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022.

The Human Exodus from Ukraine

In March of 2022, millions of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, fled their homeland in the largest human exodus in Europe since World War II. I flew to Poland, before boarding a train to Lviv, Ukraine, the epicenter of this mass exodus, with thousands daily boarding trains leaving Ukraine for destinations in Europe.

On March 11, I boarded a train in Lviv, with thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war towards Poland, and for the next ten hours documented one of the most dramatic and tragic human scenes of mass exodus I had witnessed in covering war throughout a long career.


Yigor, 6, and his mother Olga, 27, among the millions of refugees that have fled the war in Ukraine, sit on a train in the Przemysl Train Station in Poland on the border with Ukraine, waiting to leave for an unknown new safe destination in Europe, March 9, 2022.

Refugees from Ukraine, among the millions, mostly women and children, wait in the Przemysl Train Station in Poland on the border with Ukraine, hoping to be relocated to a new safe destination in Europe. March 8, 2023.

An elderly Ukrainian woman, one of millions of mostly women and children fleeing the war in their homeland, is helped on to a train leaving Ukraine for the Przemysl Train Station in Poland on the border with Ukraine, Lviv Train Station, March 3, 2022.

Thousands of Ukrainians, mostly women and children fleeing the war in their homeland, in one of the largest human exodus’ in Europe since W.W. 11, wait to board a train that will take them out of Ukraine to
Przemysl Train Station in Poland. Lviv, Ukraine Train Station, March 11, 2022.

A Ukrainian woman waving goodbye to relatives who boarded a train, amongst thousands of Ukrainians, mostly women, children and elderly fleeing the war in their homeland in one of the largest human exodus’ in Europe since World War 2. that will take them out of Ukraine to Przemysl Train Station in Poland. Lviv train station, Ukraine , March 10, 2022.

A long Ukrainian girl, among the millions of refugees that have fled the war in Ukraine, sits on a train in the Przemysl Train Station in Poland on the border with Ukraine, waiting to leave for an unknown new safe destination in Europe, March 7, 2022.

A Ukrainian woman with her pets and all she can carry, waits to board a train at the Lviv, Ukraine Train Station. She was part of a mass exodus of mostly women and children, fleeing the war in their homeland, trying to board trains that would take them to a new safe destination in Europe.
Lviv Train Station, Lviv, Ukraine, March 10, 2022.

Ukrainians, mostly women, children and elderly, flee the war in their homeland on a train taking them to Przemysl Train Station in Poland. They were part of one of the largest mass exodus in Europe since W.W. II. March 11, 2022.

Antoniusz, one of thousands of Ukrainians on a 10 hour train ride from Lviv,Ukraine, on their way to Przemysl Train Station in Poland, all part of a mass exodus of Ukrainians fleeing the war in their homeland, hoping to find refuge in a safe destination in W.Europe. March 11, 2022.

A Ukrainian woman tries to comfort her mother as both sit on a train that will take them out of Ukraine to the Przemysl Train Station in Poland.
They were part of a mass exodus of millions of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, fleeing the war in their homeland hoping to find refuge in a safe destination in Europe. March 11, 2022.

A Ukrainian woman tries to comfort her grand-daughter, resting on the lap of the mother’s son as they sit on a train that will take them out of Ukraine to the Przemysl Train Station in Poland.
They were part of a mass exodus of millions of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, fleeing the war in their homeland hoping to find refuge in a safe destination in Europe. March 11, 2022.

As millions of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, flee the war, Lilia, 22, rides on a train from to Przemysl Train Station in Poland, taking her back to Lviv Train Station in Ukraine. My recollection is that she told me she was going back to Ukraine, in spite of the danger, to be with her mother.
March 9, 2022.