The United States (US) is taking actions to crack down on international fentanyl trafficking and increase information sharing with the private sector.
The White House, through the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), unveiled a series of private-sector advisories to help domestic and foreign businesses better protect themselves and their supply chains from inadvertent fentanyl trafficking.
The advisories explain how fentanyl traffickers exploit businesses and their supply chains to move and market deadly drugs. Through these advisories, the US government wants to foster deeper public-private collaboration to curb the production and sale of illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and other synthetic opioids.
The advisories are focused on four facets of the trafficking of illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and synthetic opioids destined for the US.
- Manufacturing: Describes the unique characteristics of manufacturing illicit synthetic opioids to assist stakeholders in combating the scourge of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
- Marketing: Raises awareness about the marketing and sale of illicit fentanyl via vulnerable and unsuspecting private-sector digital platforms, including social media, e-commerce sites, and online forums.
- Movement: Increases awareness about the entities at each stage of the illicit fentanyl and synthetic opioids supply chain, including information that can help identify and prevent the movement of these deadly drugs into the United States and during domestic distribution.
- Money: Alerts financial institutions to help them detect and report on illicit financial schemes and money laundering mechanisms related to the trafficking of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and other synthetic opioids.
Concurrently, the Department of the Treasury is identifying two Chinese nationals and a China-based Drug Trafficking Organization as significant foreign narcotics traffickers. It also designated one associate and a China-based entity for being owned or controlled by one of the Chinese nationals.
ONDCP Director Jim Carroll said: “Deadly synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to take the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year.
“To reverse this trend, we are cracking down on drug traffickers more than ever before, while also taking unprecedented steps to work with the business community to stop the production, sale, and transport of these deadly drugs.”
Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway said: “Last year alone, federal agents seized enough fentanyl to kill every American man, woman, and child four times.
“Even as drug overdose deaths are declining for the first time in almost 30 years, a flood of fatal fentanyl is washing over America; rural, urban, suburban, and tribal communities are all impacted.
“These advisories assist the private sector in strengthening the supply chain.”
