Mexico Hammers Fentanyl While US Overdose Deaths Drop
As Sheinbaum smacks opioids, the curve in the most lethal US overdose crisis has truly turned
In the 12 months ending June 2023, the United States recorded its highest ever number of overdose deaths with 111,466 casualties reported and estimates of even more. This might be the peak of the most lethal drug crisis in world history, although we don’t have solid numbers for overdose deaths in China at the time of the Opium Wars. Since the year 2000, more than 1.3 million Americans have died of OD’s, about as many as the combined U.S. military deaths in all wars since independence.
In that high of 2023, synthetic opioids, mostly fentanyl, were found in the bodies of about 70 percent of victims. Cartels in Mexico cook up much of the narcotic, which is famously about 50 times stronger than heroin, using precursors they buy in China and elsewhere in Asia.
The fiscal year 2023 also had a record for fentanyl seizures at the U.S. border with agents nabbing 27,000 pounds of the drug. It’s a cliché in law enforcement claims but that really would be enough to kill the entire population of the United States.
Since then, however, the situation has changed markedly. Following that peak, overdose deaths have gone down steadily to 68,632 reported (and almost 70,000 estimated) in the year to last December (the most recent month we have figures for), a fall of 38 percent. While the number of casualties is still high, it’s a significant improvement. There are various theories about what caused this drop, which I will get into, but supply appears to be one of various factors with street dope being found with less lethal ingredients.
At the same time, the amount of fentanyl being seized at the border has gone down more sharply still. When less drugs are being seized this usually means less are being smuggled, and the Trump administration has actually put more agents on the border. The seizures fell most acutely after President Claudia Sheinbaum came to office in October 2024 and have been consistently lower since.
This April, U.S. agents seized 463 pounds of fentanyl at the border compared to an all-time high of 3,200 pounds in the same month in 2023. That is a drop of a stunning 86 percent - although the comparison of the last 12 months compared to the peak year is down about 60 percent.
“The numbers have dropped tremendously,” Victor Avila, the Assistant Director at the Office of The Drug Czar tells CrashOut. “Mexico is feeling the pressure from this [Trump] administration saying, ‘You got to act. You got to do more than what you have been doing.” And they have.”
A way that Sheinbaum’s government, with security secretary Omar García Harfuch, has managed to reduce fentanyl is by…
Sorry folks, you need to subscribe to read this story. But it’s only the price of a cuppa coffee and you get the complete archive including exclusive interviews with top players and maps of cartel territory. And now is a great time to subscribe with so much going on, and I will be following the tumultuous events with reports you can trust.