115 million fentanyl pills seized in 2023, agent says ‘cartel controls border’

Government officials have been raising concerns over the dramatic increase in fentanyl in the U.S. According to the International Journal of Drug Policy, there were roughly 50,000 fentanyl pills seized by law enforcement in 2017. In 2023, there were more than 115 million pills confiscated. That is 2,300 times more than six years ago.

The year-over-year jump is also substantial. In 2022, there were 71 million pills confiscated by officials. That means the U.S. saw a 62% increase in one year. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat the U.S. has ever faced, killing 40,000 Americans in the first six months of 2023. The drug kills more than 200 people per day in the U.S.

More often than not, it’s because people are taking other drugs that are illegally laced with fentanyl, according to the DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. Milgram said it makes the drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive and more dangerous.

When addressing how fentanyl gets into the U.S. in droves, Milgram said it is largely controlled by two cartels.

“The Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels are at the heart of this crisis,” Milgram wrote in the DEA’s National Drug Threat Assessment for 2024. “These two cartels are global criminal enterprises that have developed global supply chain networks. They rely on chemical companies and pill press companies in China to supply the precursor chemicals and pill presses needed to manufacture the drugs. They operate clandestine labs in Mexico where they manufacture these drugs, and then utilize their vast distribution networks to transport the drugs
into the United States.”

This ties the fentanyl crisis directly to the one at the southern border. An unidentified Border Patrol agent told NewsNation the U.S. Border Patrol isn’t in control at the border — the cartels are.

“The biggest thing is that we do not control the border,” the agent said. “The cartel controls the border. Everything that we do is a reaction to things that they have planned. Usually, we’re chasing around pawns while the kings and queens are doing whatever they want.”

The cartels have a history of bribing officials to turn a blind eye in exchange for millions of dollars. This happened as recently as last year, according to the DEA’s 2024 drug assessment.

“The Sinaloa Cartel is able to operate freely in some parts of Mexico because they have a network of corrupt law enforcement, military and political contacts,” the report said. “In February 2023, Genaro Garcia-Luna — the former Secretary of Public Security in Mexico — was convicted in the Eastern District of New York on international drug trafficking and conspiracy charges resulting from a DEA-led investigation.”

For the cartels, fentanyl is a multi-billion dollar industry at the cost of hundreds of American lives a day.