President Donald Trump's drug czar is warning that the drug cartels are producing synthetic opioids that are 50 times more lethal than fentanyl and the administration is launching a counteroffensive to protect Americans that is akin to the COVID-19 era Operation Warp Speed. 

"What we want to do is be able to stop that in its tracks, and that requires cooperation on a grand and global scale," Sara Carter, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy told Just The News.

That operation would involve a massive, government-coordinated public-private partnership, possibly incorporating HHS, DOD, and agencies like DEA and CBP to accelerate development and large-scale production of next-generation overdose reversal agents, advanced addiction treatments, rapid-detection technologies, and precursor chemical blockers, while funding at-risk manufacturing and distribution to ensure widespread availability.

Designating illicit fentanyl elements as weapons of mass destruction

It would also likely require parallel efforts in further border security enhancements, international precursor supply chain disruptions (potentially designating illicit fentanyl elements as weapons of mass destruction), and community-level support to reduce overdose deaths.

One pound of fentanyl, which could kill 227,000 people, has a new successor to the biological weaponry throne that is much stronger, called carfentanil. 

"We are seeing new synthetics hitting our streets in Ohio and Tennessee, and some of these synthetics are 50 times more powerful than fentanyl, and sometimes they are additives to fentanyl. We've seen carfentanil in the supply chain," Carter cautioned. 

Carfentanil is an extremely potent synthetic opioid originally developed for veterinary use to tranquilize large animals like elephants and rhinoceroses. It is 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl, making it one of the deadliest known opioids. With its extreme potency, even a microscopic amount equivalent to a few grains of salt can be lethal.

The scourge of fentanyl has ravaged America as the deadliest drug crisis in U.S. history, with synthetic opioids like fentanyl driving the majority of overdose deaths—claiming more than 48,000 lives in 2024 alone and fueling peaks of over 100,000 total drug fatalities in prior years before a recent decline to around 87,000 in the 12 months ending September 2024.

Mexican cartels dominate production

Its origins stem from the 1990s overprescription of pharmaceutical opioids, which transitioned to heroin surges in the 2010s before illicit fentanyl emerged around 2013 as a cheap, potent synthetic killer smuggled across the border.

Mexican cartels, primarily the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation organizations, now dominate production in clandestine Mexican labs, pressing the drug into counterfeit pills for U.S. distribution. The cartels rely on precursor chemicals—such as NPP and ANPP—primarily shipped from China, the world's leading supplier, which banned finished fentanyl in 2019 but continues providing the essential ingredients despite U.S. pressure.

Derek Maltz, former Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), seconded Carter's concerns when he spoke to the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

"Carfentanil, according to the experts, is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, and the national media isn't even talking about it. I had to push that out because it's really, really a huge national security issue," Maltz warned.  

Carter also highlighted President Donald Trump's designation of Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations for broadening the arsenal of legal weapons to use against them. 

"This is the first time that we will have an opportunity, unlike any time in the past, to target these organizations and work with our neighbors, and they are ready to work with us now," Carter said. 

In the past, coordination with Mexican presidents has been unreliable due to their personal and administration's connections with cartels. Former Mexican president Felipe Calderón's Public Security Secretary, Genaro García Luna, was convicted in the U.S. for taking millions in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel to protect its trafficking operations. Additionally, witness testimony in Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's 2019 U.S. trial claimed President Enrique Peña Nieto received a $100 million bribe from the Sinaloa Cartel around his election.

U.S. probes found that drug traffickers funneled about $2 million to aides of Andrés Manuel López Obrador's 2006 campaign in exchange for promised leniency and in 2019, López Obrador himself stated that "El Chapo" Guzmán once held power rivaling a Mexican president due to past collusion between cartels and authorities.