Americans are losing loved ones to opioids, but the Biden administration is taking action

Across the United States, far too many families and communities are losing their loved ones to opioids, and particularly to illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. In 2023, over 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, almost three-quarters of which involved synthetic opioids. This is a staggering, almost unimaginable, toll. That’s why President Biden and I are committed to combating this epidemic and saving American lives, and, for the first time since 2015, the number of overdose deaths from synthetic opioids declined in 2023. But it remains too high and there is more work to be done. 

Drug traffickers and their organizations operate in many respects like legitimate businesses, relying on access to banking systems and to the U.S. dollar to operate day-to-day. This gives the Treasury Department a unique ability to disrupt the cartels poisoning our communities: by targeting the financial infrastructure they need to function.

At President Biden’s direction, Treasury has used all the tools at our disposal to fight this epidemic and target the drug traffickers fueling it through our financial system.

I have established a new Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force, bringing together Treasury’s law enforcement, sanctions, and financial intelligence capabilities to coordinate our domestic and international actions. 

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Treasury deploys sanctions—among our most powerful economic tools—to target the kingpins and their support networks who seek to exploit our financial system to traffic narcotics. Over the past two years, Treasury has sanctioned more than 250 targets for involvement in drug trafficking activities, including individuals and entities linked to the most notorious Mexican drug cartels. 

Treasury took another step forward Thursday by sanctioning high-level leaders of La Nueva Familia Michoacana, a cartel that traffics illicit fentanyl and methamphetamine across our Southern border to Dallas and Houston and then on to cities including Atlanta, Charlotte, and Chicago. 

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Treasury’s engagement with the private sector is also crucial. Drug trafficking organizations often rely on anonymous corporate structures—shell companies—to launder and stash their money. That is why we are implementing bipartisan legislation by requiring many companies to report basic information about who owns or controls them, equipping us to root out the dirty money flowing through our financial system.

We also need financial institutions to partner with us so that we can follow the money behind the illicit fentanyl supply chain and go after the criminals who are abusing our financial system. To equip financial institutions to play a crucial role, we have launched public-private information-sharing exchanges to bring together law enforcement and regional and local banks to share information on tracking illicit financial flows. 

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 03: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen listens as U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to reporters before the start of a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 03, 2022 in Washington, DC. Earlier today, President Biden spoke on a secure video call with fellow Quad Leaders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan, to discuss the war in Ukraine. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

We further strengthened this work Thursday by issuing an advisory that provides key information and guidance to help financial institutions identify and report suspicious transactions related to the procurement of precursor chemicals and manufacturing equipment used to manufacture illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. This will position financial institutions to be even better partners in saving American lives. As we take action within our jurisdiction, we are also working with foreign partners to disrupt the supply of synthetic opioids and their precursors from abroad.

We collaborate closely with our Mexican counterparts and financial institutions on both sides of the border. This was a key part of my trip to Mexico in December and is at the top of the agenda as the United States engages with President-elect Sheinbaum.

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We are also engaging with China—the key source of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit fentanyl—to cut supply off at its source. Building on President Biden and President Xi’s agreement to restart cooperation on counternarcotics, I raised concerns directly to Chinese counterparts when I visited in April, and we successfully reached an agreement to increase cooperation in fighting money laundering—which will help us crack down on narcotics trafficking. We are also starting to see China take more action, including recently arresting a key money laundering target subject to a Department of Justice indictment announced on June 18.

As we look ahead, we know more action is needed. The Biden administration has expanded access to treatment and bolstered law enforcement initiatives at the border, seizing more fentanyl in the past two years than in the previous five years combined. The President’s Budget requests more funding to strengthen our efforts, including to deploy additional detection technologies and for investigations. For its part, Treasury will remain committed to taking all possible actions to save American lives—and to protect the U.S. financial system and our national security.