FBI Director Kash Patel has claimed that america is working intently with Indian regulation enforcement companies to dismantle what he describes as a China-backed world fentanyl trafficking community. Talking on The Joe Rogan Expertise podcast, Patel alleged that whereas India will not be a shopper of fentanyl, it has develop into an more and more vital transit level for chemical precursors manufactured in China and handed on to Mexican drug cartels.“They’re going to locations like India, and I’m additionally doing operations in India,” Patel mentioned. “They’re having the Mexican cartels now make this fentanyl down in Mexico nonetheless.”Patel claimed that Chinese language firms had been “getting cute” by routing fentanyl precursors by third nations, together with India, to evade direct enforcement and scrutiny.
‘No fentanyl deaths in India’
In accordance with Patel, one of many clearest indicators of a focused marketing campaign lies in the place fentanyl deaths are and aren’t occurring. He mentioned the drug is devastating america however has not created comparable crises in nations like India, Australia, or Canada.“You don’t hear fentanyl deaths in India. You don’t actually hear fentanyl deaths in England, Australia, New Zealand, or 5 Eyes companions in Canada,” he mentioned.Patel steered that the absence of deaths in these areas indicated that the Chinese language Communist Occasion (CCP) was selectively deploying the fentanyl provide chain towards america for strategic functions.“The CCP have used it as a directed strategy as a result of we’re their adversary,” Patel claimed. “Why don’t we go and take out generations of younger women and men who may develop as much as serve in america army, or develop into a cop, or develop into a trainer?”Learn: How Kash Patel broke each Indian-American stereotype
Direct engagement with India
Patel mentioned that he had personally reached out to Indian officers and that joint operations between the FBI and Indian regulation enforcement had been now underway. “I actually simply obtained off the cellphone with the Indian authorities,” he mentioned. “I mentioned, I want your assist. These items’s coming into your nation after which they’re transferring it out of your nation as a result of India will not be consuming fentanyl.”He acknowledged that the FBI is engaged on the bottom in India with “the heads of their authorities regulation enforcement authorities” to determine and shut down Indian firms concerned in importing or redistributing Chinese language fentanyl precursors.“We’re going to search out these firms that purchase it and we’re going to close them down,” Patel mentioned. Patel additionally laid out a technique that features worldwide authorized motion. “We’re going to sanction them. We’re going to arrest them the place we are able to. We’re going to indict them in America if we are able to. We’re going to indict them in India if we are able to.”
Patel’s India Connection
Patel’s curiosity in Indian cooperation will not be merely geopolitical — it’s private. Born to Gujarati immigrant mother and father who fled East Africa, Patel grew up in a working-class immigrant family and has often spoken concerning the affect of his heritage on his nationwide safety outlook. His rise from federal public defender to Trump-era White Home official and now FBI Director has typically been forged by conservative media as a narrative of Indian-American exceptionalism — one which defies conventional liberal narratives of the diaspora. His critics, nevertheless, argue that he has used his id to protect controversial strikes contained in the intelligence institution.
Claims of CCP technique and Canadian rerouting
Patel mentioned that the fentanyl trafficking community has tailored in response to stricter enforcement on the US-Mexico border. In accordance with him, cartels are actually utilizing Canada as a northern entry level for distribution.“They’re flying it into Vancouver,” Patel mentioned. “They’re taking the precursors as much as Canada, manufacturing it up there, and doing their world distribution routes from up there as a result of we had been being so efficient down south.”He additional alleged that China’s financial curiosity within the commerce is minimal and that the actual motive is geopolitical sabotage.“They’re not making a ton of cash off it,” Patel mentioned. “So it’s actually only for that objective.”
A broader attraction to 5 Eyes allies
Patel acknowledged that fentanyl precursors have been detected in 5 Eyes nations — the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — regardless that the drug itself has not but been extensively deployed in these areas.“The fentanyl itself isn’t being deployed into your nation, but it surely’s there being manufactured,” he mentioned. “The CCP simply hasn’t directed it at you but, and so they know that.”He mentioned he has requested allied governments to assist dismantle these manufacturing networks earlier than they develop into operational threats.
A worldwide drug disaster — or a focused assault?
In accordance with Patel, over 74,000 People died of artificial opioid overdoses in 2023 alone, and the fentanyl epidemic must be considered not solely as a public well being emergency however as a “tier one nationwide safety risk.”Patel argued that India’s cooperation is vital in confronting what he repeatedly characterised as a CCP-directed marketing campaign to destabilise American society.“India will not be the issue,” he mentioned. “But when we don’t get forward of it, it might develop into one.”Whereas none of Patel’s claims have but been independently confirmed by Indian or Chinese language officers, his remarks counsel a brand new part of worldwide cooperation on drug enforcement — one which locations India on the centre of a rising geopolitical storm.Be aware: Kash Patel’s statements about India
- Timestamp ~00:06:00 — India as a fentanyl transit level
- Timestamp ~00:06:30 — No fentanyl deaths in India
- Timestamp ~00:12:22 — Direct outreach to Indian authorities
- Timestamp ~00:12:32 — FBI-India regulation enforcement collaboration
- Timestamp ~00:12:43 — Indictments in India
