<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">US federal drug agents say they seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every American.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says they intercepted 379m potentially deadly fentanyl doses, which is just two milligrams.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The DEA described the highly addictive substance, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin, as the deadliest drug threat facing the US.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The agency says most of the fentanyl is trafficked into the US from Mexico.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The DEA says it seized more than 10,000lb (4,500kg) of fentanyl, as well as over 50.6m fentanyl pills that were made to resemble different prescription painkillers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That is more than double what they seized in 2021.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most of the drugs were mass-produced at secret factories in Mexico by the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, which use chemicals sourced in China, the agency said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The drug is so powerful that a lethal dose is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, and two-thirds were attributed to fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl seized this year was enough to kill all 330 million residents of the US, said the drug agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"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," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the fentanyl, the DEA also seized 131,000lb of methamphetamine, more than 4,300lb of heroin, and over 444,000lb of cocaine. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>