US seized enough fentanyl to kill every citizen in the country by 2022

Federal drug enforcement agents in the United States say they have seized enough fentanyl to kill the nation’s entire population by 2022.

The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), the federal agency responsible for the suppression and control of narcotics, claims it has seized 379 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl, with just two milligrams of the opioid enough to kill.

The federal agency named the highly addictive substance, 50 times more potent than heroin, the deadliest drug threat facing the United States.

And many say fentanyl is smuggled into the country from Mexico.

The DEA said it had seized more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl and more than 50.6 million fentanyl pills that were allegedly similar to different prescription pain relievers.

More than double what they captured in 2021.

Most of the drugs are mass-produced in secret factories in Mexico by the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, which use chemicals from China, according to the DEA.

The drug is so powerful that a lethal dose is equivalent to an amount small enough to fit on the tip of a pen.

More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, and two-thirds of those deaths were attributed to fentanyl, the equivalent of 182 deaths per day.

According to the federal drug enforcement agency, the amount of fentanyl seized this year is enough to kill 330 million Americans.

“The DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels (CJNG), the two Mexican drug cartels primarily responsible for fentanyl killing Americans today,” said DEA chief Anne Milgram.

The DEA also seized 59,420 kg of methamphetamine, more than 1,950 kg of heroin and more than 201,395 kg of cocaine, in addition to fentanyl.

– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-64049702.