Derek Maltz is the former Director of the Special Operations Division at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He currently works with thousands of families who have lost their loved ones to fentanyl poisoning.
Federal Newswire
What were the biggest threats you saw during your time at the DEA, and how does that compare with what you're seeing today?
Derek Maltz
Number one, synthetic drugs being made in China and Mexico have been a game changer for the United States. That's why we're seeing so many deaths. When I was in New York in the drug enforcement task force, the primary threats were the Colombian cartels, and then it evolved into the Mexican cartels. They took over all the distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana; but for the most part they were moving all the drugs from the southwest border up into their command and control hubs throughout America.
Now the cartels are doing everything in the United States, but with the deadly fentanyl and the mass amounts of deaths, it's a game changer.
Federal Newswire
What role do the cartels play in the opioid and fentanyl crisis?
Derek Maltz
Around 2008, we started seeing a bombing campaign from China with synthetic cannabinoids, cathinones, K-2, spice, and bath salts that were hitting America. CBP and all the other law enforcement [agencies] were trying to figure out what the hell was coming out of Chinese labs harming our kids.
Eventually around 2012, we started seeing pure fentanyl sold on the internet from China, and we started seeing lots of deaths in America. We started seeing the emergence of the Mexican cartels around that time of mixing fentanyl coming from China with actual heroin coming from Mexico. But as it evolved, the Mexican cartels realized they could make their own fentanyl in labs in Mexico, and they started getting the precursor chemicals directly from China.
That's where we're at now. Of course, the production of these fake prescription pills like Mexican Oxy, those are the pills that are coming in at levels that we've never seen in the history of the country. That's why we're seeing the death rates going up because the cartels are operating with impunity at the border. They have the entire border controlled and they're bombing our cities with a tsunami of these deadly substances. Not just the fake pills but the powder that they're making in the labs in Mexico that is now being mixed and made into pills in America.
The bad guys have now expanded business and they're buying pill presses from companies in China and other parts of the world. They're taking the powder that's coming from Mexico and they're making their own pills because it's such a profitable business.
The cartels are the key problem here that we have and of course the corrupt Mexican government is helping to facilitate massive casualties in America.
Federal Newswire
Do you think China is making a concerted effort to export fentanyl and its precursor chemicals, knowing the devastating effects it’s having on Americans?
Derek Maltz
Yes 100%.
I don't have proof to go to court and convict them on this, but if you look at Chinese unrestricted warfare, they're using all the tools of their national power to destroy and destabilize their adversary, America. They're taking total advantage of the weaknesses in our country–the lack of security and policies to keep this stuff out of our country. So yes.
I saw it with the bath salts, the K-2, the spice, and then it evolved to fentanyl. But what they're doing now, which is really disturbing, is they're making more powerful synthetic opioids...These are another class of synthetic opioids coming out of the labs in China.
They're also producing xylazine, which is the horse tranquilizer that's actually rotting people from the inside and out around America. They are now mixing xylazine with fentanyl. [Apparently] it gives this really intense high, but unfortunately it's causing ulcerations, amputations, and causing people to get necrosis which is the rotting of human tissue. This is deliberate.
I've been investigating my whole life. My father was in the DEA for 30 years, and I understand a little bit about our enemy. I'll tell you what, I am convinced that this is unrestricted warfare and [U.S. Rep.] Mike McCaul said something that I'll never forget at an event I went to. He said “a great foreign policy for China is to sell fentanyl to America.” It's that simple.
They're providing the chemicals and the money laundering services now, which have actually enhanced the Mexican cartel's ability to operate efficiently. Their business operations are much greater now than they've ever been. They're getting their money back into Mexico at a record level because the Chinese are doing a lot of their money laundering now.
Federal Newswire
Where would you tell policymakers to focus on this crisis?
Derek Maltz
First of all, it's mind-boggling to me that we haven't started the most aggressive education campaign that we've ever had in this country, because the deadly impacts of fentanyl are something we've never seen in the history of the country.
The department of education, and state and local education boards should be mandating elementary, middle, and high schools to educate these kids; because this is like something we've never seen.
I want to make something really clear. Most kids in America are not watching national news on mainstream media, cable news, or podcasts. Most of them are looking at video reels on social media, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. We should have the White House declaring a national emergency getting social media influencers, professional athletes, and role models to start bombing the social media sites with these video reels that will get their attention and will save lives.
On the other side we have to remember, if you had a massive water leak in your house on the second floor and your whole house was falling apart because of water, you'd shut down the main valve immediately.
This country is being completely inundated with fentanyl. We have to shut down the main valve.
What we're doing is not working. It's not good enough. The CDC just came out with the latest stats–111,000 dead Americans in the last 12 months, ending April of 2023. Those stats in my opinion are way low, because our CDC cannot get the statistics timely and accurately like they did with COVID.
We have to get with these Mexican government officials and put some really strict demands in place, and work with them. [We must] provide assistance with the capabilities that we have to go after those cartels like they've never been gone after.
We also have to secure the border. We're giving the cartels a new funding stream with the human trafficking that they've never had in the history of their business. They have the ability now because of a lack of resources…They can just blitz this country and flood the zones to inundate our brave men and women on the border, and then they put this poison all over the country.
There's several things you could do right away, but right now the White House is not even talking seriously about it. They're still talking about harm reduction and giving out fentanyl strips.
I'm not against helping in that way. But we have to have accountability on those programs because we're throwing away the money if we don't have a plan, and if we don't have a whole-of-government approach.
Whether we declare the cartels terrorists or not is irrelevant to me. What's relevant is they have to be dealt with a punishment that is basically equal to the harm they're doing to America.
There's no terrorist organization in the history of this country that I'm aware of that has killed this many Americans, so what are we waiting for?
This is a chemical weapon attack on America. It's made in labs outside America, and they're using it to destroy our country and our future generations. They're now doing more and more powerful synthetic drugs. So what are we waiting for?
We have to be aggressive on the supply side and we have to get people help. Mental illness is off the charts. We have depression, anxiety, and suicides all over the place. We have to get people help, and we can't ignore this discussion. It's not going away. It's getting worse.
Federal Newswire
If the Mexican government doesn’t really want our help, how do we address the problem at its root?
Derek Maltz
The American children and our country always come first, so we can't continue to allow the Mexican cartels to kill our children. And we certainly can't rely on corrupt officials in Mexico who are taking big money in their banks from the cartels to help facilitate them.
We have to give them a shot. We want to work with them. We want to be cooperative, but at the end of the day a strong leader in Washington has to make the decision to launch. We have technology now in this country that can decimate, just like we decimated ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban.
We could do it without going to war with Mexico.
We don't want to go to war with Mexico. That is our partner. But we have to put American families first.
I have a rally next week with the Lost Voices of Fentanyl in Washington, DC. It's going to be a big turnout. We're going to have almost every state in America representing all these families who are burying their kids. Some of them are 13 years old. They're going up to the bedrooms and finding their kids blue in the lips because they just took one pill or half a pill. We have to stand up.
In the last couple of days in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during a 12-hour period, 18 people were poisoned. There are reports of nine dead and a lot of these people are over 40-years old. Then all of a sudden, in July in Cleveland, nine dead in 24 hours, Medford, Oregon: 10 dead in five days in June. Cleveland, five dead in 12 hours. We have mass poisonings going on.
They're killing our citizens at record levels and we have no sense of urgency. Where is the sense of urgency?
The President…basically threatened Russia if they use chemical weapons in Ukraine. Well, where's the significant consequences against the cartels or China for using chemical weapons against our kids?
Federal Newswire
What should the approach be to cartels?
Derek Maltz
I testified in Ohio court with Sarah Carter and one of the mothers who lost her child about five years ago, to declare the cartels as terrorists. They have to be treated like Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, or ISIS, because they're causing more damage in America than any of those terror organizations ever did.
So number one, you have to put the focus on the cartels and you have to stop using old opioid addiction talking points to confuse the American public.
The President should declare a public health national security emergency, label the cartels…public enemy number one, just like Chicago did many years ago with Chapo Guzman, which then created more of a whole of government approach.
You use the best and brightest in America, you use all the authorities and capabilities that we have to go after this evil character [just like we did with] Chapo Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa cartel–it worked.
We have to change the narrative. They're not drug traffickers. We never should call them drug cartels again. At the bare minimum they are violent ruthless transnational criminals, but in my opinion they're probably the biggest narco terrorists in the world.
Certainly they are impacting America more than any organization in the world, so they have to be treated as such an enemy that we get everyone focused in a task-force environment.
We [need to] hold leadership accountable in DHS, DOJ, DEA, and Homeland Security; and we start going after them like we've never done before in the history of the country. If we go out and we arrest a handful here [and confiscate] a handful of 20,000 pills, or 100,000 pills or a million pills, we’re not [going to] shut off the main valve of fentanyl in Mexico. We must use all our tools to do it.
Federal Newswire
The Biden Administration has indicated it will not designate cartels as terrorist organizations or authorize the use of military force against them. Does this impact law enforcement agencies that are confronting the problem?
Derek Maltz
I will say that's why we're seeing mass exodus out of law enforcement throughout the country, because people now have had their morale beat down. We don't have a consistent rule of law anymore in America. We have a two-tiered justice system.
A couple years ago, President Biden said that international drug trafficking and widespread distribution of illegal drugs constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security. My…[studies have shown that the] number of Americans dying from fentanyl is now the single greatest challenge we face as a country…Families and communities across our country are being devastated by the fentanyl epidemic.
Here's the problem, words don't match actions, because if you really believe those words you would put the appropriate action against these threats.
That's really disheartening for me, as somebody who spent his entire life dedicated to serving the country. My father served for 30 years, my brother died in Afghanistan. We have a public service family, and what's killing me is to hear these really experienced law enforcement people so disgusted that their leaders in Washington are not supporting them.
It's like how Secretary Mayorkas looks into a camera and [says] he's got operational control of the border. Then you see the videos that brave people on the border and in the media are putting out every day, and it just gets your head spinning.
Chris Wray [Director of the FBI] has said that China is the biggest threat to our country. So why isn't anybody alarmed by the massive amounts of Chinese nationals being apprehended at the border–over 17,000 already this fiscal year?. What about the 1.7 million known “got-aways?” We don't even know what they're doing here, where they are, who they are.
Federal Newswire
Are we underestimating the national security threats relating to the border problem?
Derek Maltz
If I'm a bad guy and I want to come into America to do something, I'm not going to wait in line. I'm not gonna go to the Border Patrol and say “here's my fingerprints, here's my photograph.” I'm gonna pay the cartels a little bit more money as a high value target and come in with all these getaways.
I'm going to get into the country and I'm gonna carry out my operations. Even though it's reported as 1.7 million [got-aways] it could be 3 million or 4 million got-aways. We don't know.
My other question, “Why is the DHS being deceptive…and not publishing the known got-away numbers?” The only reason we know that is because the Border Patrol and CBP officials are leaking that to people who get it out to the public.
We don't know if they have records because the record keeping around the world is terrible and we don't have access to it.
It's a recipe for disaster.
I've been told by reputable people that 90% of the asylum claims are fraudulent. All these people coming in here the Democrats want us to believe that they're poor people that are just trying to get a better life. Well the last time I checked that doesn't qualify you for asylum just because you want a better life.
Now my heart goes out to the vast majority of these people because we want them to have a better life, and we love immigration. But we have to have legal immigration. We have to have a system. Right now we have chaos.
Federal Newswire
How bad is the human and sex trafficking situation on the southern border?
Derek Maltz
I'm no expert at human or sex trafficking, but what I've learned is that the sex trade and the forced labor trade is booming. [It’s] creating a whole new funding stream for the cartels.
Our brave Border Patrol and CBP have done around 28,000 rescue operations, and no one even realizes that they're out there putting their own life on the line. Women and children who are being sexually exploited not only on the journeys, but in the stash houses on the border.
They’re packing these people into the stash houses like they're animals on top of each other, especially if they don't pay a lot of money to the cartels and the smugglers.
Look at the 1,700 dead migrants that have happened since this administration took over. We're finding bones and dead people as they're making this dangerous journey.
Federal Newswire
Should we continue to look at the border problem from a law enforcement perspective or do we need to change our approach?
Derek Maltz
It was Einstein that said, “if you continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, that's the definition of insanity.”...
I love law enforcement. I support them every day. I appreciate the sacrifices and they're working their butts off. They're hitting record levels of fentanyl and methamphetamine [seizures]. Just as an example already this fiscal year, CBP has hit over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl down at the borders. DEA last year seized 58,000,000 fake pills. That’s hundreds of millions of deadly dosages, so they're working hard. They're extraditing when they can. \
But it's not working. It's not good enough.
We need the other tools in the toolbox, and the other experts in the government to go after those cartels. That's the key if I was advising anyone in the government. It would be just common-sense solutions, as what we're doing is not working.
When I ran the special operations division. We had a lot of success against the Sinaloa, Gulf, Jalisco, and Zetas Cartels. But here's the thing, right now they have no will, the corruptions off the charts, so when are we gonna take it on our own and start dealing with it with the professionals that we have?
I'm not talking about going to war with Mexico. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not even saying put boots on the ground. I'm saying use technology, use some of these Treasury sanctions and actions.
I know they're already starting to do some of that, but it's not enough. We have to put it on steroids. It's got to be with a sense of urgency right now. They forget that we're losing over 300 people a day just from fentanyl.
The human trafficking and the suffering of these kids around the country is another story that we can go on all day about.
Federal Newswire
Fentanyl is killing many drug users. Why would the cartels want to kill their customer base?
Derek Maltz
I get asked that a lot, and it definitely defies common sense. But here's what people are missing.
The vast majority of cartel members don't want to kill their customers, they want to maximize the profits. Certainly the leadership in the cartels who run this multibillion dollar global enterprise want to continue to maximize profits. They now know that making synthetic drugs in labs in Mexico is much more profitable than growing these plants, getting the farming season [right], and relying on the weather to all work.
It's just night and day they've elevated their game. So if they can increase the customers out there and get more and more people addicted [they win]. Not everybody taking these pills is dying. Some people are taking multiple pills a day, and they're making these pills for less than ten cents each in Mexico.
There was Homeland Security testimony where in Alaska someone was selling each pill for $80. I know in Montana on one of the Indian reservations the head of the DEA told me the pills were going for $140. What they're doing is they're taking advantage of the addicted population.
They're using social media to access a whole new user population that we never saw with cocaine and methamphetamine. I've been doing this a long time. I don't ever remember a 12 year old kid dying in the bedroom from cocaine, methamphetamine, or smoking marijuana. That’s unheard of, but now sprinkle some fentanyl in a marijuana joint, put it into cocaine or crack.
We're seeing people die and I don't think it's deliberate. But they're making so much money, and they're getting the money back quickly because the Chinese are facilitating the money laundering. And they've opened up their business to all this new stuff, with human and sex trafficking.
They're in their glory days right now and by the way there is no fear. They have no fear of the American government because they see in America we have people breaking into our department stores, stealing all this stuff, burning down cities and no one's going to jail.
Federal Newswire
What are your top solutions to attack this problem?
Derek Maltz
Well for one, [I’d have a] White House summit. I would invite professional athletes, celebrities, role models, and influencers. I would hold a press conference and have families there. Not just the fentanyl families, the human and sex trafficking families, and angel families.
Then we're gonna ask our private citizens like the professional athletes to start helping us educate these kids. The Department of Education is gonna be educating like we've never seen.
Then we're gonna meet with Mexico the next day, and we're gonna tell them, “if you don't get on our train, the train has to go without you.”
We should be using the best public servants in America, the best tools and authorities … to decimate those cartels.
We're also going to get people help. Mental illness is like it's never been in the history of this country.
We should have task forces set up where a leader is designated. [For example,] if you were a DHS secretary and I was your boss, here's the deal. Get the agencies together, and through a surge, start a multi-agency operation–our military and our Intel communities are going to be part of your team, and we're going to destroy the cartel's ability to operate.
Federal Newswire
How do people interested in learning more reach you?
Derek Maltz
I’m @derekmaltz_sr on Twitter. I also have a Youtube channel under my name Derek Maltz. I use Instagram, Truth Social, and I have a Facebook national security and public safety group. We have a pretty big membership. It's growing daily.
Of course, I'm all over the nonprofit “Lost Voices of Fentanyl” at www.lvof.org and other organizations around the country that are working together to spread awareness and save lives.
