A memo says Pentagon and DHS plan to designate fentanyl as WMD

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Synthetic opioid, accused in health surveys of increasing the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States, has been worrying national security officials for decades because of its widespread murderous potential during terrorist attacks. In recent months, DHS and Pentagon officials have come together to discuss an official memo indicating that the ADM designation is a tool to disrupt the widespread availability of the drug on the black market.

"The high toxicity and increasing availability of fentanyl is attracting threat actors to search for unconventional materials for a chemical weapons attack," DHS deputy secretary of defense for counterfeit weapons said. massive destruction, obtained by the military press. Task & Purpose publication.

A DHS official confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which was sent to the then DHS secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, in February.

The threat to national security posed by fentanyl has largely remained out of public view, but the Trump administration has made the fight against its illegal distribution a centerpiece of the campaign against the opioid crisis.

China announces new crackdown on fentanyl for US President Trump

Fentanyl and its derivatives are behind 30,000 of the 72,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2017, according to the National Institute for Combating Drug Abuse.

Versions of the drug, which have a legitimate medical use as an analgesic, are widely produced in China and can be purchased on the dark web in the United States. Mexican cartels and some elements of the heroin trade have used fentanyl as an additive to increase the potency of other illicit drugs.

At the end of last year, after the pressure of the Trump administration, the Chinese government announced that it would add fentanyl to its list of controlled substances, which is a significant change that aims to limit the manufacture of the drug in the country.

Congress also established new standards for the US postal service that will help customs inspectors to control and ban packages containing fentanyl and other opioids at ports of entry.

"Easily disturbing" to arm

Despite these efforts, it would be "incredibly easy" to use the drug during a chemical attack, said Andy Weber, a former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs.

"Now that there is a market where you can buy large amounts of fentanyl analogues, it eliminates the capacity deficit and makes it accessible to terrorist groups," said Weber. "This is changing the game.In my life, I have never seen a weapon of mass destruction be part of an existing black market."

There are other officially designated ADMs that are made from readily available items, such as ricin, extracted from castor seed, although weapons experts have stated that the threat posed by fentanyl and its derivatives is more important.

"It's as bad as it sounds," said a government consultant who requested anonymity to discuss the WMD projects he has been working on. "Because of its power, what we have seen is unlike any other, apart from radiation, nuclear, chemicals and explosive explosives – it's something potentially very dangerous."

Fentanyl could be turned into a weapon by devastating effects by its distribution in the air and water systems.

US defense officials first noted the danger of a fentanyl attack when the Russian army in 2002 injected it into the ventilation system of a theater in Moscow recaptured by Chechen rebels, according to Weber.

Dozens of hostages were killed by fentanyl gas, as well as by insurgents.

"It is in the Pentagon that we began to realize that the armed forces were developing analogues of fentanyl as a chemical weapon and that we had to start fighting against countermeasures," he said. Weber.

Proposed official name

According to the memo, "the problem of the opioid crisis is in progress", "because of the current crisis of opioids", fentanyl arouses renewed interest. In recent months, senior DOD officials, including the commander of US Southern Command, have proposed the official designation. .

Another former Defense Department official, who requested anonymity to speak to CNN about sensitive topics, said that the current consideration of fentanyl as an ADM was part of a broader discussion among national security officials on the classification of drug-based agents.

DHS also had "informal discussions on the subject" in the first two months of this year between its sub-agencies and a number of DOD divisions, McDonnell wrote in the memo.

In statements, DHS and US Southern Command both stated that they "constantly assessed" various threats in partnership with other agencies, but declined to comment on the details of these threats. conversations.

Counter illegal shipments

Designating fentanyl as a DAD would allow national security officials to more effectively devote their resources to developing technology to detect fentanyl shipments.

According to the memo, the Department of Defense has developed capabilities to fight against non-traditional chemical weapons, such as fentanyl, but "some [countering weapons of mass destruction] The entities of the Department of Defense and elsewhere have been slow to act, fearing to be dragged into the counter-narcotics mission, "said the memo.

An official designation of WMD would also open new tools to further the illicit distribution of the drug.

"This will allow them to progress faster and easier," said the government consultant.

Ryan Browne from CNN contributed to this story.

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