In March 2025, President Donald Trump followed through on his promise to impose sweeping changes on three of the United States’ major trading partners: Canada, China, and Mexico. He cited the “extraordinary threat" posed by fentanyl, a lethal and highly potent synthetic opioid, and the countries’ failure to prevent the flow of illegal fentanyl into the United States. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is 100 times more potent than morphine, is the most common drug involved in overdose deaths in the US, fuelling an opioid crisis that has become a high-priority issue for the Trump administration.

According to the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) of the US Intelligence Community, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, terrorist and transnational criminal organisations are directly threatening US citizens. “Cartels are largely responsible for the more than 52,000 US deaths from synthetic opioids in the 12 months ending in October 2024 and helped facilitate the nearly three million illegal migrant arrivals in 2024, straining resources and putting US communities at risk…. Non-state groups are often enabled, both directly and indirectly, by state actors, such as China and India, as sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers," says the report dated 25 March.

Unlike last year’s assessment, this time India has been placed on the same level as China in the supply of precursor chemicals used by drug cartels to manufacture the opioid fentanyl. Fighting the trafficking of opioids has been declared a political priority by the Donald Trump administration. The report names India after China, “the primary source country for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill pressing equipment." Mexico-based chemical brokers circumvent international controls through mislabelled shipments and the purchase of unregulated dual-use chemicals. The report also stated that anti-India groups, including Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, are a concern to the US “in part because of their historical........

© News18