FBI Director Kash Patel has recently talked about the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the United States and the way the Trump administration is trying to combat it. A former federal public defender, national security prosecutor, Patel has stood out as one of the leading loyalists of Donald Trump’s administration as a senior official in both the Department of Justice and the Trump administration. In the podcast uploaded by the Joe Rogan Experience YouTube channel on June 6, Patel claimed that he recently contacted the Indian government and sought help regarding the crisis.
His words included, “I literally just got off the phone with the Indian government. I said, I need your help. This stuff’s coming into your country, and then they’re moving it from your country because India is not consuming fentanyl.”
What is the fentanyl crisis in the US about?
The fentanyl crisis is about a terrifying wave of overdose deaths sweeping the United States. It is mostly driven by illegally made fentanyl, an incredibly powerful synthetic opioid. Just tiny amounts, like a few grains of salt, can kill you. The worst part? People often don’t even know they’re taking it. Dealers secretly mix fentanyl into other drugs like heroin, cocaine, or fake pills made to look like prescription painkillers or ADHD meds bought online or on the street. Someone thinks they’re taking one thing, but it’s actually laced with poison. This has made accidental overdoses horrifyingly common.
Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for adults under 50 in the US. The crisis is so bad that life-saving naloxone (Narcan) is now carried by many cops, families, and even schools. Public health campaigns, even by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) scream “One Pill Can Kill” because it has turned tragically true.
What did Kash Patel highlight about the Indian government’s role in the fentanyl crisis in the US?
Kash Patel claimed that Mexican cartels are shipping their fentanyl to India and using routes to bring it to the United States. “What they (Mexican cartels) are doing now to get cute is that they’re shipping that stuff not straight to here. They’re going to places like India, and I’m also doing operations in India, and they’re having the Mexican cartels now make this fentanyl down in Mexico still. But, instead of going right up to the southern border and into America, they’re flying it into Vancouver,” Patel said in the Joe Rogan podcast.
“Americans don’t understand the depth and depravity of fentanyl. You don’t hear about fentanyl deaths in India, China, England, Australia, New Zealand,” he continued.
Patel also explained the Indian government’s role in the fentanyl crisis. “I literally just got off the phone with the Indian government. I said I need your help, this stuff is coming in from your country, and then they are moving it from your country because India is not consuming fentanyl. No one’s dying over there. I need you and your help, so my FBI is over there working with their heads of government law enforcement authorities.”
“We’re going to sanction them and we’re going to arrest them where we can. This is now a global problem, and the reason why it’s gotten so bad is because no one did anything for four years,” the FBI chief claimed.