WASHINGTON – As 2022 comes to an end, the Drug Enforcement Administration is announcing the seizure of over 50.6 million fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder this calendar year. The DEA Laboratory estimates that these seizures represent more than 379 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl, with 4.7 million located in the five-state Omaha division.

Fentanyl is a highly addictive man-made opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the DEA. 

“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 Administrator Anne Milgram. “DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels—the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels—that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today.”

Most of the fentanyl trafficked by the Sinaloa and CJNG Cartels is being mass-produced at secret factories in Mexico with chemicals sourced largely from China, DEA officials said. In 2021, the DEA issued a public safety alert. on the widespread drug trafficking of fentanyl in the form of fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills.

These pills are made to look identical to real prescription medications—including OxyContin, Percocet, and Xanax—but only contain filler and fentanyl and are often deadly. No pharmaceutical pill bought on social media is safe, DEA officials said. The only safe medications are ones prescribed directly to you by a trusted medical professional and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist, officials noted.

Just last month, DEA alerted the public to a sharp nationwide increase in lethality of fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills. DEA laboratory testing in 2022 revealed that six out of ten fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. This is an increase from DEA’s announcement in 2021 that four out of ten fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills contain a potentially deadly dose.