The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Monday the reclassification of fentanyl as Weapon of mass destructiona measure that elevates the fight against this synthetic opioid to the rank of one direct threat to national security.
The decision was formalized by a Executive Order Signed at the White Houseduring an official event recognizing tasks related to the defense of the border with Mexico. When introducing the decree, Trump justified the measure with an extreme comparison about its deadly effects.
“We officially classify fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. No bomb does what this does; to our knowledge, between 200,000 and 300,000 people die every year,” the president said.
The executive order directs various federal agencies to use it legal, financial and operational instruments that were previously reserved for terrorist scenarios or chemical threats. The Ministry of Justice must promote this within this framework harsher penalties, aggravating factors and different penalties in cases related to fentanyl trafficking.
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were authorized to do so take action against assets, financial institutions and economic networks relating to the production, distribution and marketing of opioids and their chemical precursors. The text also expands the role of the Defense Department, which must assess whether the deployment is appropriate additional national security resources to the judiciary in emergency situations.
In addition, the update was ordered Chemical incident response protocols Consider the specific risk posed by fentanyl and strengthen the identification of smuggling networks through related intelligence Nonproliferation.
According to White House officials, fentanyl is currently that leading cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 45. Law enforcement officials stress that one dose is warranted two milligramsthe equivalent of between ten and fifteen grains of table salt can be fatal.
Trump also directly linked the fentanyl trade Financing transnational criminal organizations and armed groupsby claiming that the profits from this business fuel murders, terrorism, insurrections and violent conflicts over control of routes.
“The possibility that fentanyl will be used in large-scale, concentrated terrorist attacks poses a serious threat to the United States,” the presidential document warns.
The reclassification adds to a series of decisions made since the start of Trump’s second term. Below is the statement from National emergency at the southern borderthe designation of eight criminal organizations – including the Cartel de los Soles, Tren de Aragua and MS-13 – as foreign terrorist organizations and the promulgation of the law STOP fentanylwhich consolidated substances related to this opioid as drugs List I according to federal legislation.
The White House also recalled that the government imposed this Duty in response to what he said were Mexico, Canada and China taking no action to stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the US territory. At the operational level, Trump even approved it military actions to disrupt sea routes, destroy ships used for drug trafficking and disrupt the logistics of criminal networks.
During the same meeting with the press, the president addressed other foreign policy issues. He assured that the United States “closer than ever“To reach an agreement to end the war between Russia and Ukraine after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and NATO.”
“We had very long and very good conversations,” Trump concluded in the Oval Office.
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