Stop China, Iran and Terrorists From Weaponizing Carfentanil
The rise of illicit carfentanil smuggling and its links to China and terrorism raises the question of the risk of adversary states using terrorists or criminal proxies to disperse chemical or biological weapons in the United States. International criminal networks are known to be used by U.S. adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Carfentanil could become their weapon of choice.
In 2016, Canadian border officials in Vancouver seized 1 kilogram of carfentanil, which they said was enough for 50 million lethal doses. The package came from China and was labeled “printer accessories.”
The next year, firefighters near Toronto responded to a carbon monoxide alarm and discovered 42 kilograms of carfentanil in a Toronto-area basement. Police found 33 illegal firearms in the home and specialized containment gear that likely originated in China. If pure, 42 kilograms of carfentanil could yield 2.1 billion lethal doses at 20 micrograms a dose, enough to kill every person in the United States six times over. In 2018, a man linked to the home launched a mass shooting attack in Toronto that killed two people and injured 13. ISIS claimed responsibility.
Im was quoted as saying, “This is where we believed the RCMP didn’t want anything like that to be disclosed—that there was a potential ISIS sympathizer attempting to use carfentanil as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD), as opposed to just killing somebody with a pistol.”
The case illustrates both the risk of adversary regimes in places like China connecting transnational criminal and terrorist networks to weaponize carfentanil or other substances that could be used as a WMD, and how authorities in allied countries like Canada may attempt to cover up the risk due to Beijing’s political influence.
The New Jersey case demonstrates that U.S. authorities lacked sufficient actionable intelligence to predict the theft or find the thieves after the fact. Matched with extensive smuggling of substances such as carfentanil, the theft is a critical element in one recipe among many for disaster.
Carfentanil was first synthesized in Belgium in 1974 and has been used since 1986 as a tranquilizer for large animals, such as elephants. It is approximately 100 times more powerful and deadly than fentanyl. A low dose of carfentanil can kill an addict, and even more easily kill an average citizen or unaccustomed recreational drug user. The latter two categories have lower tolerance to synthetic opioids.
Carfentanil is sometimes mixed into cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamines, and xylazine (a veterinary sedative known on the street as “tranq”), making it difficult for first responders to know which drug they are treating when trying to revive an overdose victim. Those users who die from carfentanil and their friends on scene often have no idea that they took carfentanil along with their intended drug. Death can come within minutes.
Already in the case of fentanyl, a dose equal to just a few grains of salt is enough to kill. In the case of carfentanil, the dosage difference between a high dose and death is almost nil. A nearly microscopic dose of carfentanil, smaller than a single grain of salt, is enough to kill, and naloxone, used as an antidote for fentanyl overdose, is far less effective against carfentanil.
Three or more shots of naloxone are often required to revive a patient who overdoses on carfentanil. In the case of a mass casualty event, emergency personnel would likely not have access to enough naloxone to save any but a minuscule fraction of the cases. And it would be dangerous for them to enter an area contaminated with aerosolized carfentanil without gas masks, oxygen tanks, and hazardous-material suits.
Carfentanil can come as a liquid, powder, gas, or compressed into pill form, and is lethal when ingested, inhaled, injected, or simply applied to the skin. When Russia used carfentanil against 40 Chechen terrorists who had taken 912 hostages in a Moscow theater in 2002, Russian authorities intended the dosage to be just sufficient to incapacitate the terrorists. Naloxone was available afterward to revive the hostages, but approximately 130 of them died anyway.
Carfentanil is banned from the battlefield as a chemical weapon by international convention, but an international treaty against chemical weapons is more of a guidebook than an impediment to terrorists.
The CCP has, within the last few years, avoided enforcing its regulations on synthetic opioids. It uses the prospect of improved enforcement in China to pressure the United States during negotiations on other issues, including trade and Taiwan. Meanwhile, chemists in China can invent new synthetic opioids that are not yet regulated.
Given Beijing’s continued lack of assistance, Washington should immediately make clear to the regime that any terrorist use of a chemical such as carfentanil on U.S. soil traced back to China, including through precursors, would be attributable as an attack by the regime on the United States. This would be consistent with the U.S. government holding state sponsors of terrorism responsible for the attacks that result, providing a form of extended deterrence and increasing the CCP’s incentives to crack down on China’s illicit manufacture of synthetic opioids and their precursors.
China and other countries, such as Canada, that attempt to hide the severity of the risks posed by carfentanil networks should, at the very least, pay an immediate price in the form of economic sanctions or tariffs.
As fentanyl seizures have decreased over recent years, DEA seizures of carfentanil increased from 54 in 2022 to 145 in 2023 and 1,400 in 2025. Given the illicit nature of its manufacture, mixture into various illicit drugs, varying dosages necessary for a high among various types of users, and astronomical lethality, it should come as no surprise that as smuggling of the drug to the United States increased, carfentanil overdoses nearly tripled between 2023 and 2024 to 413 deaths in 42 states and Washington, D.C.
On Feb. 25 of this year, Canadian police arrested four individuals in Quebec who allegedly marketed carfentanil and newer synthetic opioids stronger than fentanyl. According to reporting by Cooper, the group has links to Iran and a Mexican cartel. The police operation seized 600,000 illicit pills from the group two months prior.
This year’s Montreal arrests and theft of crop-dusting drones in New Jersey illustrate an ongoing risk that terrorists could match a substance like carfentanil with technologies that allow for mass dispersal over population concentrations.
It is long past time for authorities to head off the threat with improved surveillance, greater controls on technologies such as drones and crop dusters, increased drug seizures, and the imposition of economic sanctions against countries like China and Canada that do not fully cooperate with U.S. counternarcotics and counterterrorism investigations. These measures will likely require new enabling legislation. Sunset clauses could return U.S. laws to the status quo after the threat has decreased. While civil libertarians may cry foul, the risk is too high to avoid taking aggressive measures.
Action must be taken before terrorists weaponize carfentanil or other dangerous substances against Americans, or the United States risks a massacre.
If you enjoyed this article, consider our invitation below:
The Epoch Times is fully independent and funded by readers, so we’re only accountable to you. We deliver principled, objective reporting that respects your intelligence and strengthens your understanding.
The Epoch Times serves you with fact-based, in-depth journalism crafted by seasoned reporters and editors. Anchored in truth and tradition, we deliver reporting that reflects reality—not rhetoric—so you can see the world clearly and think for yourself.
That’s why we’re inviting you to a limited-time introductory offer — just $1 per week for one year — so you can experience the clarity and insight millions already rely on.
Mark Us Preferred on Google
No comments:
Post a Comment