The Department of Homeland Security has intensified its efforts to stop fentanyl and the chemicals used to get it into the US by tracking cryptocurrency used by Mexican cartels, according to two US officials involved in the strategy.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told NBC News in an interview at the International Mail Facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Thursday that DHS โseeks to hold people accountable, seize their property and also intercept and interrupt your financial flow. โ
For more on this story, tune in to NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas tonight at 6:30 pm ET/5:30 pm CT or check your local listings.
The US government faces a major hurdle in stopping fentanyl production because the chemicals needed to make it are largely produced in China and shipped to Mexico, where the cartels manufacture the drug and then bring it across the US border to sell.
Although the chemicals are controlled substances in China, it is still the largest supplier of precursor chemicals. Fentanyl is now the number one killer of Americans ages 18 to 45, according to Families Against Fentanyl, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it claims the lives of more than 70,000 Americans each year.
Mayorkas told NBC News that the Biden administration is negotiating with China to get their cooperation in halting production of the fentanyl-producing chemicals.
โWe hope that the negotiations that we are starting with the Chinese representatives really create space for us to address with our Chinese counterparts the scourge of fentanyl precursors,โ Mayorkas said.
Under mounting pressure to take action from families who have lost loved ones and Republicans who blame the Biden administration's border policy, DHS announced in April that it has put more pressure on Mexico to stop the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl.
In the first two months of DHS's intensified campaign to stop fentanyl at the border alone, Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations seized more than 10,000 pounds of the drug and 284 people were arrested, according to a June statement.
The next phase of the strategy will seek to go after high-ranking members of fentanyl-trafficking cartels by increasing manpower and using forensic accounting to track cryptocurrency used to purchase precursor chemicals.
Customs and Border Protection is also increasing its ability to track what are known as pill presses from entering the US, officials said. While these presses are often used in Mexico, CBP seized them at the JFK airport mail facility to prevent people from using them inside the US to turn fentanyl powder into pills that mimic less lethal drugs, misleading consumers about the drug they are taking.
But families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl say it's too little too late.
Lisa Leap lost her daughter Katie Wagner in 2021 to a fentanyl overdose, just four months after Katie turned the corner leaving a rehab facility.
"He was a fun person. He loved life. He lived life to the fullest. And he lived life on his own terms. If he had a choice, he would still be here," Leap said.
Leap called on the Biden administration to do more and called on Americans not to write off those addicted to the potent drug.
โA lot of people like to ignore drug addicts, but they don't realize that these people are someone's loved ones,โ Leap said.
