Enough Fentanyl seized to kill every American

The Drug Enforcement Agency  has confiscated  more than 10,000lbs (4,535kg) of fentanyl powder and 50.6 million fentanyl tablets this year -'enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill every American'.

4,535kg of fentanyl powder and 50.6 million fentanyl tablets seized this year.

The US seized enough of potentially fatal opioid fentanyl this year to kill every American, law enforcement officials said yesterday (Wednesday).

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said that Mexican cartels were flooding the streets with cheap synthetic opioids, fuelling an overdose epidemic. The authorities have confiscated more than 379 million doses.

Fentanyl tablets.

Officials said that so far this year their seizures included more than 4,535kg of fentanyl powder and 50.6 million fentanyl tablets. That was twice the number of tablets confiscated last year when more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses.

“These seizures - enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill every American - reflect the DEA’s unwavering commitment to protect Americans and save lives, by tenaciously pursuing those responsible for the trafficking of fentanyl across the United States,” Anne Milgram, the DEA administrator, said.

92.5 pounds of illicit fentanyl that was seized in April by the Alameda County Task Force in California. Picture: Alameda County Sheriff's Office / AFP

Fentanyl, which is highly addictive and cheap to produce, is 50 times more potent than heroin and has become a multibillion-dollar business, according to the DEA. It is being trafficked by the Sinaloa and CJNG cartels. The drug is being mass-produced in covert laboratories in Mexico with chemicals imported mainly from China.

The DEA has warned that fentanyl is used as a bulking agent in fake prescription pills such as Xanax and Oxycontin that users may have no idea contain the opioid.

Dealers also put fentanyl in recreational drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine to increase potency and get users hooked.

The DEA said: “Fake pills are readily found on social media. No pharmaceutical pill bought on social media is safe. The only safe medications are ones prescribed directly to you by a trusted medical professional and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist.”

The agency has warned of a sharp increase in the potency of fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills. It said that laboratory tests had shown that six out of ten fake pills contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. Last year, the figure was four out of ten, according to the DEA.

2022 photos of fentanyl victims are on display at The Faces of Fentanyl Memorial at the US Drug Enforcement Administration headquarter. Picture: ALEX WONG / GETTY

Milgram added: “DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today.”

While the DEA has seized enough fentanyl to kill everyone in America, the agency’s numbers represent only a partial count of the total volume confiscated by law enforcement in 2022. US customs said that along the southern border it detected more than 14,000 lbs of illegal fentanyl during the fiscal year that ended on September 30. US law enforcement estimates that its agencies intercept only 5 to 10% of the illegal fentanyl that crosses the southern border.