380 MILLION deadly doses of fentanyl seized by DEA across US in 2022

The highly addictive man-made opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin, with just 2 milligrams of the drug, the amount that would fit on the tip of a pencil, enough to kill a human.

The DEA describes fentanyl as the "deadliest drug threat facing this country," with estimates that the majority of this year's 107,000 drug overdoses were from fentanyl, Fox News reports.

"In the past year, the men and women of the DEA have relentlessly worked to seize over 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl from communities across the country," said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. "These seizures – enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill every American – reflect DEA’s unwavering commitment to protect Americans and save lives, by tenaciously pursuing those responsible for the trafficking of fentanyl across the United States."

"DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels—the Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG) Cartels—that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today," she added.

Earlier in the year, Milgram called on Mexico to make more effort to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States, saying that the "vast, vast majority" of the drug is coming from the southern border.

"They know it's happening, we know it's happening and they need to work to stop it," she added."

The cartels that traffic the drug receive the majority of their fentanyl from secret factories around Mexico, where the synthetic opioid is mass-produced using chemicals mostly sourced from China.

Last year, the DEA issued a Public Safety Alert warning of fake prescription pills designed to look like real pills such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Xanax, but containing only filler with a small, but potentially deadly, amount of fentanyl.

Last month, another alert was issued warning of a sudden nationwide increase in these deadly pills.