Mexican Cartels Are Now Smuggling Drugs By Disguising Them As Legal Medication

U.S. authorities are claiming that cartels are using a new method as they attempt to smuggle drugs into the country: making them look like legal medication.

In a press conference this week, Attorney General Pam Bondi and acting DEA Administrator Robert Murphy said cartels mostly seek to smuggle methamphetamine and fentanyl this way. Meth in particular is pressed into pills that looks like Adderall, they added.

"Something I hadn't seen is that they're now putting meth in pills. It's the first time we see it in pills. Now, a meth pill might not kill you instantly, but can get you into an addiction so deep it can destroy you," Murphy said, according to Infobae.

Bondi, on her end, said the practice also seeks to make it more palatable to use the drug. "Taking a pill is less stigmatized than injecting or smoking drugs, but the damage caused by meth is just as grave, if not more," she said.

Bondi went on to recall a case where agents seized 24 pounds of carfentanyl that looked like prescription pills. "It's something new that we hadn't seen. Carfentanyl, as we know, is even stronger than fentanyl. It's usually called elephant tranquilizer. And it was disguised to look like oxycontin. It should terrify all parents in the country."

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice released data on DEA operations conducted the first half of 2025, revealing that DEA agents have seized roughly 44 million fentanyl pills and over 4,500 pounds of fentanyl powder so far this year.

"Our DEA agents are doing historic work to keep our communities safe from deadly drugs like fentanyl and dismantle the cartels selling them," said Bondi said in a statement. "I want to remind all Americans to exercise extreme caution: a pill can kill."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that while fentanyl-related overdose deaths declined after December 2023, the synthetic opioid was involved in many of the 80,112 overdose deaths recorded in 2024.