Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid which is up to 50 times more powerful than heroin, is now the main driver of drug overdose deaths in America. The US Drug Enforcement Administration says 67% of the 107,375 US deaths from drug overdoses or poisonings in 2021 were linked to fentanyl or similar opioids. US authorities blame Mexican drug gangs for supplying fentanyl to users across the US. Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says his country has proof that illegal shipments of the powerful opioid drug fentanyl are arriving from China; while China's foreign ministry has denied that there is illegal trafficking of fentanyl between China and Mexico. The US government is deploying law enforcement to crack down on fentanyl dealers and also taking steps to prevent and treat substance use and the harms it produces. But why is it still struggling to contain the fentanyl epidemic? Would stronger US cooperation with Chinese and Mexican authorities make a difference? What should President Joe Biden's administration do going forward to tackle the fentanyl crisis? Shaun Ley is joined by:Regina LaBelle, who served as acting director in the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the White House when Joe Biden became president in 2021. She now directs the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the O'Neill Institute at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC.Vanda Felbab-Brown, Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington.Uttam Dhillon served during Donald Trump’s presidency as acting head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, from 2018 to 2020. He now works for law firm Michael Best and Friedrich and its consultancy, which provides advice on drug policy to clients including healthcare companies. Uttam is on the board or advises several companies involved in tackling the opioid crisis. Also featuring: Dr Rahul Gupta, President Joe Biden's 'Drug Czar' as Director for the US Office of National Drug Control PolicyGustavo Mohar, head of Mexico´s national security intelligence agency from 2007 to 2011Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van QuickenborneFILE PHOTO: Plastic bags of Fentanyl are displayed on a table at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection area at the International Mail Facility at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File PhotoProduced by Ellen Otzen and Imogen Wallace

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution and expert on nonstate armed actors, delves into the aftermath of Yevgeny Prigozhin's leadership in the Wagner Group. She unpacks recent military skirmishes in Mali, showcasing the group's evolving strategies and tactics amid heavy casualties. The discussion highlights Wagner’s integration with local forces and its implications for regional stability, as well as Russia's broader ambitions in Africa, revealing a complex web of power and exploitation.

Vanda Felbab-Brown and Regina LaBelle discuss the US drug epidemic caused by synthetic opioids. They explore the global impact of the overdose crisis, the dangers of fentanyl, the challenges in reducing drug supply from Mexico, and the progress in addressing the fentanyl problem.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on China's role in the fentanyl epidemic, discusses the global spread of fentanyl and synthetic drugs, China's complex relationship with drug networks, and the challenges in intelligence sharing and combating criminal networks between the US and China.

In the national security world, including on Lawfare, a lot of attention gets paid to China's tech sector and other parts of its economy. Comparatively less attention is paid to China's illicit economies, illegal trade involving China and other countries around the world. But China has been involved in numerous acts of transnational criminal activity with occasionally lax enforcement, and there's a new series of Brookings papers and blog posts about this very subject. To talk it through. Jacob Schulz sat down with Vanda Felbab-Brown, the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, and Madiha Afzal, a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. They talked through the project and papers that each of them have written on the subject, including one on illegal wildlife trafficking, one on narcotic precursor trafficking and one on human trafficking.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.