The DEA plans to defeat fentanyl trafficking by the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels in 2023

At the end of 2022, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that during that year it seized more than 50.6 million fake prescription pills mixed with fentanyl and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. He estimated that these seizures represent more than 379 million potentially fatal doses of fentanyl.

He warned that fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat facing that country; a opioide artificial highly addictive drug that is 50 times more potent than heroin and only two milligrams of fentanyl, a small amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, is enough to be considered a potentially fatal dose.

DEA head Anne Milgram said the 2022 seizure of 379 million doses of fentanyl in communities across the United States is enough doses to kill all Americans.

He stated that the main operational priority of the DEA in 2023 is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels, the cartels of Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG), who “are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today.”

He highlighted that most of the fentanyl trafficked by the Sinaloa and CJNG cartels is mass-produced in secret factories in Mexico with chemical products coming mainly from China.

He recalled that since 2021, the DEA issued a public safety alert about the widespread drug trafficking of fentanyl in the form of fake pills laced with fentanyl.

“These pills are made to look identical to real prescription drugs, including OxyContin®, Percocet® and Xanax®, but they only contain filler and fentanyl and are often deadly,” he said.

He asserted that fake pills are easily found on social media, so none of them are safe. “The only safe medications are those that are prescribed directly to you by a trusted medical professional and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist,” she said.

Last month, the DEA alerted the public to a sharp nationwide rise in the lethality of fake pills laced with fentanyl.

DEA laboratory tests in 2022 revealed that six out of ten fake pills laced with fentanyl contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. This represented an increase from 2021, when it was four in ten fake pills.

In 2022, the DEA seized more than twice the number of fake fentanyl pills than it did in 2021. The DEA also seized nearly 131,000 pounds of methamphetaminemore than 4,300 pounds of heroin and more than 444,000 pounds of cocaine.

The DEA created a Faces of Fentanyl memorial to commemorate the lives lost to fentanyl poisoning.

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