By Steve Neavling
Mexican cartels and Chinese chemical manufactures are to blame for the deadly fentanyl crisis in the U.S., the DEA and Justice Department said this week.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said Tuesday that the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel are behind the deadly, synthetic opioids getting across the border.
“These cartels are responsible for virtually all the fentanyl, and they currently dominate the worldwide fentanyl distribution and supply chain. They are sourcing these precursor chemicals from China, that are the building blocks of synthetic and man-made fentanyl,” Milgram said during a Tuesday press conference at DEA headquarters. “They are in charge of the production of the fentanyl that is happening across Mexico. They are operating the transportation networks that are bringing the fentanyl into the United States. They run and oversee the sales of fentanyl on social media and in our cities, our communities, and our towns.”
Milgram said the agency’s “core mission” is to “target those two networks as they operate worldwide, from China to Mexico to the United States.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland pledged to partner with the DEA to combat fentanyl.
“Every day, thousands of employees and professionals of the Department of Homeland Security, together with professionals across the United States government, including the Justice Department, are working to secure the border,” Garland said Tuesday. “What we’re trying to do at the DEA, as the administrator described, is to take down the cartels that are the cause in the United States, to take down the distributors for the cartels who are working in the United States, and to stop the companies that are providing the precursor chemicals from China.”
