Drug traffic coming into Arizona and the United States has decreased by 97%.

Posted by Badlands Media, Oct 15, 2026Checked Nov 2, 2026

Polygraph verdictFalse

Sources: 4 contradict5 context
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 60%

Badlands MediaOct 15, 2026

No source measures total drug flow into Arizona or the U.S. at all, and FactCheck.org calls Trump's drug-flow claims unsupported. The best available measures show declines far smaller than 97%: national fentanyl seizures down about 50%, Arizona port fentanyl weight down about 30%, and Arizona pill seizures down from 19 million to 17.8 million.

This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.

What was said

… Have you noticed? Have you noticed, as the boat comes in, you know, they think a boat with five engines on it that's going 75 miles an hour is fast, but it's not fast compared to a missile. So you probably saw the statistic: 97% of the drug traffic coming into your state and coming into our country is gone. Any, any, any boats, it comes in through the oceans and the seas and the Gulf of America. I love the Gulf of America. That's another little thing we did. I did that as a little flyby. It always about, you know, we have 92% of the frontage, Mexico is eight. …

Badlands Media · Oct 15, 2026· from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Contradicts. FactCheck.org finds the president's drug-flow claims unsupported, noting there is no comprehensive data on total drug flow and that seizures are not equivalent to total flow, so the 97% figure cannot be confirmed.[1]

Contradicts. The measured declines in drug seizures are far below 97%: CBP reports fentanyl seizures down about 50% nationally over 15 months, and Arizona ports saw about a 30% drop in fentanyl weight seized between FY2025 and FY2026.[1][3][4]

Contradicts. Arizona's DEA-reported fentanyl pill seizures fell only from 19 million to 17.8 million in FY2026, roughly 6%, which is nowhere near a 97% decline.[5]

Context. The 95-96% declines reported by CBP and in the Tucson news coverage refer to illegal border crossings by migrants, not drug traffic, so they do not support the drug claim.[2][6][7][8][9]