July was a chart-topping month for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Detroit Field Office.

Officers stationed along the Michigan-Ontario border seized a whopping 8,131 pounds of drugs in that month, more than five times what they seized in all of fiscal year 2019 — 1,555 pounds — and more than twice what they seized in any single month the year before.

The amount of drugs seized on their way across the Michigan international border surged again last year, Detroit Field Operations Director Christopher Perry said Thursday, continuing an upward trend that started after the pandemic hit in 2020. They also found counterfeit consumer goods for babies, football fans and music lovers.

“These numbers far dwarf what an average year’s been for us,” Perry said of drug seizures at Michigan’s U.S.-Canadian border. “If you look at what transpired before the pandemic, say Fiscal Year 19 and previously, we would be seeing a fraction of what you see here.”

Detroit Border Protection officers have seen a 2,800% increase in drug seizures since 2019. The Detroit Field Office oversees crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and Windsor Tunnel in Detroit, the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie and the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

The agency announced its annual seizure totals during a press conference Thursday in Detroit.

During the last fiscal year, Oct. 1, 2020 through Sept. 31, 2021, officers seized:

• 14,324 pounds of marijuana. Last year, they seized 9,059 pounds. They seized 496 in 2019.
• 240 pounds of cocaine. Last year, they seized about 212. They seized 601 pounds in 2019.
• 25.5 pounds of methamphetamine. Last year, they seized less than two pounds. They seized 14 pounds in 2019.
• 2.8 pounds of fentanyl, a powerful opioid drug. Last year, they seized 17. They seized 10 pounds in 2019.

They didn’t just find drugs. At the press conference, officers displayed an eclectic mix of illegal and counterfeit goods they snatched over the last year.

There were predictable items — guns, bullets and cash, timeless outlaw accessories.

Some seized items were more peculiar — a cache of gaudy, counterfeit Super Bowl rings, teething necklaces posing an obvious choking hazard, a Diet Coke can cleverly disguising a fistful of weed and thousands of bugs that could devastate crops. The bugs weren’t on display.

Customs officials also seized Bluetooth speakers as well as testosterone and steroids.

Among the final items seized were bottles of the antiparasitic drug behind some of the pandemic’s hottest misinformation — Ivermectin, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not authorized as a COVID-19 treatment.

“Whether it’s guns, marijuana, the counterfeit rings, this all funds criminal enterprises,” Perry said. “Certainly drugs are a big thing for us, keeping those off the streets, but all of this here comes down to funding criminal enterprises and illegality.”

The drugs officers confiscated were mostly on their way into Michigan, although officers also seized some headed into Ontario. Drugs tended to be carried on commercial trucks, Perry said, unlike weapons, which usually are found in personal vehicles.

Border crossings into Michigan had been limited since the pandemic started until November, when the U.S. reopened to vaccinated international travelers.

Perry said he believes there’s a demand for drugs in the U.S. and said illegally smuggled marijuana likely is cheaper than marijuana sold legally for medicinal and recreational purposes.

“There’s certainly a black market for it,” he said. “People try to get it less expensively than through the dispensaries.”