The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it confiscated over 50.6 million fentanyl-laced “fake prescription pills” and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2022.
Estimations from the DEA’s laboratory concluded that the materials could comprise over 379 million possibly lethal doses.
The DEA’s press release called fentanyl the “deadliest drug threat facing this country” and pointed out that it is “50 times more potent than heroin.”
Just two milligrams of fentanyl can be enough to kill a person, according to the announcement.
“These seizures – enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill every American – reflect DEA’s unwavering commitment to protect Americans and save lives, by tenaciously pursuing those responsible for the trafficking of fentanyl across the United States,” commented DEA administrator Anne Milgram, per the press release. “DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels—the Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG) Cartels—that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) reacted to the news on Twitter, blaming the issue on Mexican cartels that are “supplied by Chinese labs.”
Mexican cartels—supplied by Chinese labs—are flooding our country with fentanyl.
It’s time we took the fight to them. https://t.co/YnfdZAOhCZ
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) December 20, 2022
It appears the DEA agrees. As the agency wrote, “Most of the fentanyl trafficked by the Sinaloa and CJNG Cartels is being mass-produced at secret factories in Mexico with chemicals sourced largely from China.”
Announcements warning Americans of the peril of fentanyl have been released by the DEA in the past. In a November press release by the organization, it was revealed that six out of ten fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills analyzed in 2022 hold a potentially fatal dose of the substance.
Some politicians have laid blame on the Biden administration for the crisis of fentanyl flooding into the United States. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody accused Joe Biden of “look[ing] the other way as Mexican drug cartels smuggle massive amounts of this deadly opioid across our southwest border.”
Over 100,000 Americans have died of drug poisoning in 2021, per the CDC.
Other nabbed drugs this year include almost 131,000 pounds of methamphetamine, more than 4,300 pounds of heroin, and over 444,000 pounds of cocaine, according to Blaze Media.
