America thinks it’s winning war on drugs as deaths plummet. But there’s an even darker threat on the way: ‘They’re always one step ahead’
America’s fentanyl-fueled drug crisis is finally showing signs of easing — but former DEA chief Derek Maltz warns that this is no time to celebrate.
After years of staggering losses, drug overdose deaths in the US have seen a remarkable and sudden decline.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fatalities peaked in 2023 with a horrifying 110,037 deaths — that’s more people than can fit inside Michigan Stadium, the largest football arena in the country.
The CDC in May reported a dramatic 27 percent drop in the death toll, down to some 80,391 lives lost — most of them claimed by synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is largely made in Mexico using chemicals shipped in from China.
Experts have scrambled to explain how such a steep decline is even possible.
They credit everything from greater access to naloxone — the overdose-reversal drug now stocked in bars, schools, and vending machines — to new treatment programs and tighter border control.
But Maltz, who served as acting DEA Administrator under President Donald Trump for the first half of 2025, says the drop is also due to a trio of critical — and overlooked — developments.
Worse still, he adds, the groups behind America’s drug carnage — Mexico’s cartels and crooks aligned to China’s autocrats — are adjusting their tactics, and the future remains scary.
Beijing vehemently denies these claims as ‘totally groundless’ and ‘slander’.
Derek Maltz, who served as acting DEA Administrator, told the Daily Mail the real reasons drug deaths were falling
Maltz says China is ‘bombing America with synthetic drugs’ from labs like this facility in Shandong Province
Smarter cartels
‘I do totally believe the trend is going down very significantly, and it’s going to continue to drop drastically,’ Maltz told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.
‘The Mexican cartels… got smarter and advanced a little bit in the manufacturing process.
‘They don’t want the US government and President Trump shooting off missiles at their labs.’
According to Maltz, one major factor is that drug traffickers are killing off fewer customers.
Fentanyl pills today are less deadly than those sold in previous years.
In 2024, DEA lab tests found that about five in ten pills contained the 2mg dose of fentanyl that is considered potentially fatal.
In past years, that figure was closer to seven in ten. Maltz believes this shift is intentional.
‘The cartels are shifting their strategy. They’re sending in more methamphetamine and cocaine instead of just fentanyl,’ he said.
The DEA’s 2025 threat report also pointed to China-based chemical suppliers intentionally diluting the potency of precursors before they reach North America.
The pitiful sight of fentanyl addicts has become all-too common on the streets of San Francisco and other US cities
Drug Enforcement Administration agents took part in these immigration enforcement raids in New York in January
Experienced users
The second reason, Maltz says, is that drug users themselves are getting savvier.
More are now carrying Narcan, using fentanyl test strips, and smoking pills rather than injecting — which can reduce overdose risk.
‘Narcan has been a literal lifesaver… but don’t downplay the army of families going into schools, testifying in Congress, and educating the country,’ he said.
Still, Maltz is sharply critical of federal data collection.
‘It’s an embarrassment to America how unreliable the statistics have been from the CDC,’ he said.
‘During COVID, we had death counts on TV every night. But with fentanyl poisoning, we can’t even get accurate statistics.’
‘If I were king for a day, I’d demand monthly stats on how many times Narcan was administered… not names, just numbers — it’s a national emergency.’
An aerial view of two drug smugglers getting busted by border guards agents after crossing the frontier from Mexico
Trump’s crackdown
The third reason, says Maltz, is the harder line taken by President Trump since returning to the White House in January.
Trump’s administration has tightened the southern border, slapped tariffs on China and Canada to block fentanyl and its precursors, and pressured Mexico to dismantle drug labs.
The former DEA chief says those moves are already paying off.
‘We should have declared the Mexican cartels foreign terrorist organizations a long time ago. Trump finally did it,’ he said.
‘Law enforcement is doing a much better job now — Homeland Security task forces are going after cartel threats more aggressively than ever.’
Maltz dismissed soft-on-crime policies pushed by some cities during the last administration.
‘Anyone who thinks defunding the police is a good idea doesn’t understand the threats to this country,’ he said.
Drug smugglers were caught bringing cannabis into the United States from Mexico in Tucson, Arizona
The threat evolves
Despite the positive data, Maltz insists America is still under chemical attack from Chinese transnational criminal networks and Mexican gangsters — and the threats are rapidly evolving.
‘America is under attack — a chemical attack — from Chinese criminal networks. They’ve done a phenomenal job destabilizing our communities and families,’ he said.
‘They’re bombing America with synthetic drugs — first fentanyl, then xylazine, now nitazenes. And they’re laundering the money too.’
According to the former DEA chief, dangerous new substances are emerging, including tianeptine — nicknamed ‘gas station heroin’ — and ultra-potent nitazenes, which can be dozens of times stronger than fentanyl.
Deadly combinations are also on the rise: fentanyl laced with tranquilizers like xylazine and medetomidine — neither of which respond to naloxone.
Fentanyl is also being mixed with meth and cocaine, creating unpredictable and often fatal drug cocktails.
‘This isn’t just fentanyl anymore. It’s xylazine, nitazenes, Chinese-sprayed marijuana, and next up: vapes. They’re always one step ahead,’ said Maltz.
He warned of a surge in Chinese-controlled black market marijuana grows on US soil, where crops are being sprayed with toxic pesticides that are sending teens to the ER with hallucinations and psychosis.
‘They’re running massive illicit marijuana grows inside the US, spraying them with Chinese pesticides, and causing kids to be hospitalized with psychosis,’ he added.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington DC rejected the claims as ‘totally groundless’ and ‘slanders against China’.
Beijing regularly inspects chemical factories for compliance with drug laws, works with US law enforcement, and undertakes ‘special network cleanup operations’ to halt the fentanyl scourge, Liu told the Daily Mail.
‘The US should not repay evil with virtue, but should objectively and rationally view and deal with its own fentanyl problem, cherish China’s goodwill, maintain the hard-won good situation of China-US anti-drug cooperation, and promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations,’ he added.
Malts says that vapes could be the next route for China to impact what happens in America
Scary omens
Maltz remains a tireless advocate for action, education, and reform. He’s made collages of overdose victims — 25 pages long, with 90 photos on each — and brought them to Capitol Hill and TV studios.
‘We’ve never been hit like this in American history when it comes to death and destruction of families… and people just aren’t getting it,’ he said.
He’s also keen to avoid political division.
‘This isn’t a red or blue issue. It’s a red, white and blue issue. Every American should care about the deaths of our kids.’
America’s overdose death rate is dropping fast — but the war is far from won. Maltz wants the nation to stay vigilant, fight smarter, and stay one step ahead of the traffickers killing Americans with every shipment.
Maltz served in the Drug Enforcement Administration for 28 years, including by running New York’s anti-drug efforts and nearly a decade spent at the Department of Justice.
