DEA blames "drug networks for flooding the US" with fentanyl

What are the effects of fentanyl?

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(CNN Spanish) -

The Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, revealed on Thursday that there is a “direct link” between the deaths related to fentanyl in the United States and criminal drug trafficking networks in Mexico.

According to data from this agency of the US Department of Justice, this occurs at a time when overdose deaths in the North American country reach an unprecedented level: there is a fatality every five minutes.

The administrator of the DEA, Anne Milgram, said at a press conference that the entity seized more than 680 kilos of fentanyl this year alone.

According to the official, drug traffickers use multiple platforms on social networks such as Snapchat, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, among others, to promote their products.

Anne Milgram, director of the DEA.

"Mexican criminal drug networks are taking advantage of the perfect tool for drug trafficking: social media applications that are available on all of our smartphones," said Milgram. "They use these platforms to flood our country with fentanyl. The ease with which drug traffickers can operate on social media and other popular applications is fueling our nation's unprecedented overdose epidemic," he added.

The US government seized enough fentanyl this year to give every American a lethal dose, Milgram reiterated, noting that this narcotic is directly related to the number of overdose deaths facing the country.

Over the past year, 64,000 overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids, predominantly fentanyl.

DEA seizes 1.8 million pills containing phentalanine 0:40

Today, 85% of the US population (about 280 million), have access to a smartphone and, according to Milgram, could easily become the target of drug traffickers or hackers ready to bid. these dangerous drugs.

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Between September 29 and December 14, the DEA seized more than 8 million counterfeit prescription pills that were directly implicated in at least 46 overdoses and 39 deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than 100,000 people died from overdoses from May 2020 to April 2021. Of these, more than 75,000 cases involved opioids, mostly fentanyl.

DEA Fentanyl