‘People are treating it as a drug issue. It’s not a drug issue. It’s the No. 1 threat to our national security,’ says the former head of DEA special operations.
The United States needs to ramp up enforcement against every step of the manufacturing and trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic drugs if it hopes to stem the crisis, several experts told The Epoch Times. With every passing day, however, the path to success gets narrower as the criminal organizations involved get more sophisticated.
More than 100,000 Americans died of an overdose last year; of which more than 70,000 overdosed on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The United States government has poured billions into addiction treatment, but the drugs are too broadly available for the treatment to stick, some experts said, arguing the supply needs to be drastically curbed.
Illicit fentanyl usually comes across the southern border from Mexico where it’s manufactured from chemicals made in China and pressed into pills that often look like prescription drugs such as Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone.
Steps by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to regulate export of illicit chemicals have been dismissed by the experts as cosmetic. Instead, they say, the regime is using drugs as a strategic weapon against the United States.
“This is a chemical war that we’re facing, and no one’s treating it as a war,” said Derek Maltz, former head of special operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“People are treating it as a drug issue. It’s not a drug issue. It’s the number one threat to our national security,” he told The Epoch Times.
The House Select Committee on the CCP issued a report earlier this year detailing China’s involvement at every step of fentanyl trafficking. Chinese companies produce the precursor chemicals from which fentanyl is prepared. Chinese companies ship the chemicals to Mexico. Chinese-made pill presses allow the production of counterfeit pills. Chinese organized crime groups then help the cartels launder and move the illicit profits from the United States to Mexico.
By Petr Svab
