DEA warned of massive increase in fentanyl overdose spread by cartels: “They must be stopped”

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) alerted US law enforcement authorities to the increase in mass overdoses spread by drug cartels in an urgent call to finalize the necessary interventions, as well as investigations and arrests of those who result responsible for the epidemic.

Anne Milgram, head of the US agency, sent a letter to the rest of the federal agencies about the national emergency crisis, which is an extension to the alarm spread in September last year about the increase in the availability and accessibility of fake prescription pills containing the opioid synthetic.

According to previous data from the DEA, transnational crime groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) are the ones that flood the streets with narcotics that led to records of deaths from overdose. Although they ship shipments with fentanyl tablets, they also mix the chemical with other substances.

“Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” said the DEA administrator in her recent April 6 letter, after accounting for at least 29 people who have lost their lives to 58 overdoses.

According to the latest data from the US agency, fentanyl-related events, characterized as three or more overdoses occurring at a close time and in the same place, have occurred in at least seven U.S. cities in recent months.

Affected cities include Wilton Manors, Florida; Austin, Texas; Cortez, Colorado; City of Commerce, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; St. Louis, Missouri; and Washington, D.C.

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