"Today, the drugs most responsible for killing Americans are illicit synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its analogues, which are easier to produce and transport and also significantly more lethal. The nature of these drugs, and their ease of access and potency, presents a national security, public safety, and public health threat. While the old trafficking structures still exist, the producers and traffickers of these illicit synthetic drugs now regularly exploit lawful global commercial distribution networks to sustain and enhance their illicit business."

The United Nations is building a global coalition to improve investigations, seizures and to act against manufacturers. The White House says it is "leading" that effort.

In 1999, Jim Sloan, the then Director of FinCEN, told World Money Laundering Report that his priority was to try to break down the departmental barriers to intelligence sharing amongst law enforcement in the USA. There was considerable territorial resistance to this plan. Sloan's idea was proved to be right when it was discovered that there was plenty of evidence about the 11 September attackers held by departments that did not connect and, with retrospect, a much more co-operative approach was needed. So a giant project to collect and analyse data centrally was announced. So when the White House says "It is essential to improve coordination and information/intelligence sharing across the Federal government and with State, Territorial, Local, and Tribal partners to strengthen our ongoing investigative and analytical efforts to target drug traffickers and dismantle their networks" it has a hollow ring to it.

The White House plans to increase public-private co-operation at borders to identify and seize illegal shipments. Can this work? It's not hard to see how hard it will be to herd the cats of the global shipping and distribution industry. More stick and no carrots? The plan is to borrow from the sanctions regime to focus on dual-use items, in this case precursor chemicals.

And, of course, there's to be more pressure on the financial sector. It's a proposal that denies the reality of how much the financial sector already does in this area: "The Biden-Harris Administration will expand its efforts to disrupt the illicit financial activities that fund these criminals by increasing accountability measures, including financial sanctions, on key targets to obstruct drug traffickers’ access to the U.S. financial system and illicit financial flows. We will also strengthen collaboration with international partners on illicit finance and anti-money laundering efforts related to drug trafficking."

Further Reading:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/11…