Simulated fentanyl pills are displayed at a Drug Enforcement Administration research laboratory on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in Northern Virginia. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration released its latest report on drug threats, highlighting progress in the fight against fentanyl, a powerful opioid responsible for most overdose deaths.

Even so, fentanyl remains at the top of the DEA threat assessment.

“Mexican cartels’ production, trafficking, and distribution of powerful illicit synthetic drugs, chiefly fentanyl and methamphetamine, represent a dire threat to public health, the rule of law, and national security in the United States,” the report said. “The Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels (CJNG), together with their procurement, distribution, and financial support networks stretching across Latin America, China, and other key global nodes, remain the dominant threats for the trafficking of these and other drugs into the United States.”

The move away from plant-based drugs to synthetics has helped the cartels rake in ever-more cash. Cartels maintain steady supply chains for precursor chemicals, primarily from China and India, needed to produce these synthetic drugs.

In the 12 months ending in October 2024, the United States recorded 52,385 overdose deaths from synthetic opioids — a 33% decline — while overall overdose deaths from any drug declined about 26%, according to the CDC.

Fentanyl purity also fell last year, according to DEA testing. In 2024, the average purity of fentanyl powder samples was 11.36%, ranging from exhibits that contained almost no fentanyl (0.07%) to 82% purity.

That doesn’t mean fentanyl is any safer.

“The downward trend in fentanyl purity does not mean that street-level fentanyl is less dangerous,” according to the report. “Drug dealers in the United States continue to adulterate fentanyl with various animal tranquilizers (such as xylazine), anesthetics (such as ketamine), and other synthetic opioids (such as nitazenes).”

DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said the report shows progress.

“This year’s report indicates progress in the fight against fentanyl and also outlines the increasing challenges we face with the changing landscape of the synthetic drug crisis,” he said. “The adulterating of fentanyl with highly potent, dangerous chemicals reminds us that this fight is far from over.”