During the past year, United States federal authorities seized more than 379 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl – enough to kill every American – the Drug Enforcement Administration reported.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said on Wednesday, December 21 that they intercepted 379m potentially deadly fentanyl doses.
Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin, and is the deadliest drug threat facing the US, according to the DEA.
The DEA says it seized more than 10,000lb (4,500kg) of fentanyl, as well as over 50.6m fentanyl pills that were made to resemble different prescription painkillers.
That is more than double what they seized in 2021.
The agency says most of the fentanyl is trafficked into the US from Mexico.
Most of the drugs were mass-produced at secret factories in Mexico by the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, which use chemicals created and sold in China, the agency said.
The agency said that fentanyl is so powerful that a lethal dose is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil.
More than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, and two-thirds were attributed to fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl seized this year was enough to kill all 330 million residents of the US, the drug agency added.
