A former DEA agent issued a dire warning on "America's Newsroom" Friday on the skyrocketing amount of fentanyl pouring across the southern border into the U.S. and taking the lives of children.

SEIZURES OF DEADLY FENTANYL BY CBP IN FY2021 ALREADY TOP ALL OF FY2020

DEREK MALTZ: I want to thank the brave men and women of the Border Patrol and CBP for their relentless effort to keep the drugs out of the country and save lives. So the policies obviously are hurting our national security, the crime is escalating around the country. But most importantly, the Mexican cartels are now the enemy of our children. They are engaged in a sustained, deadly assault against our American future generation of kids. So you look at the fentanyl poisoning, you look at the fentanyl murders, that's what it is.

This is no longer just an opioid addiction or an opioid crisis, because the kids, they may stay away from pills or stay away from opioids and go to cocaine or methamphetamine, but they're dying instantly. This is murder. So we have to change the perception, we have to change the education, and our schools, our teachers, our parents have to know that this is a deadly crisis. We've never seen this in the history of the country.

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And it's really aggravating that the mainstream media will continue to call it an ‘opioid crisis, kids are taking drugs, let's not worry about it, the parents aren't parenting.' No, this is the Mexican cartels who have formed a deadly partnership with the Chinese criminals to really destroy our future. That's what it is. We have to stop dancing around the issue.

WATCH THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW BELOW:

Fentanyl from Mexican cartels, Chinese criminals a 'crisis' unlike any other we've faced: Ex-DEA official

Derek Maltz says Mexican cartels must be seen as 'enemy of our children'