Europe repeatedly warned about Fentanyl dangers in bid to learn from US mistakes

The number of deaths related to the synthetic drug, which is at least 80 times as potent as morphine, has been slowly rising, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

Fentanyl was responsible for almost 45,000 deaths in the United States alone during 2024.

There are no similar statistics available for Europe, with the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) stating that except for “some Baltic countries, these drugs do not currently figure prominently in the routine data available at EU level.”

Despite low use of the drug in Europe so far, New York Times journalist Alan Feuer said that America wants Europe to learn from their mistakes.

“When I talk to US federal agents who are posted in Europe, they often say one of the biggest things they try to tell their European counterparts is just how dangerous fentanyl is economically,” he told Crime World podcast host Nicola Tallant.

“Because the economic model, lower costs, higher profits, is just so enticing, and of course the, the just physical danger that it presents.

“They have been raising alarms in Europe for some time trying to use the American experience with fentanyl as a cautionary tale.”

The European Council have said that while fentanyl is relatively niche, it is becoming increasingly available on the EU opioid market, with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GIATOC) adding that its arrival on the market has been “gradual but mostly silent.”

Feuer, who is a guest on Episode 1088: Deadly alliance in Sinaloa Cartel threatens flood of fentanyl to Europe, said that cartels such as the Sinaloa are copying a previous model which saw cocaine flood the global drug market.

“The previous model of how cocaine and how the cocaine traffic spread, it just makes sense.

“If the source of the cocaine was Colombia and to some degree, Bolivia, then there were intermediary companies that were transhipment countries.

“It gets to Mexico, it crosses the border into the United States, it is distributed and sold in the United States at great profit,” he continued.

“Why would they not replicate the same structure of the international distribution with a product that is easier to make and can be sold at much higher profit?”

It comes as a civil war between two factions of the gang have led the ‘El Chapitos’ to create an alliance with sworn enemies in the Jalisco Cartel.

It’s a move Feuer says is risky, and could completely shake the underworld.

“One of the main factions of the Sinaloa cartel run by the sons of El Chapo, they call themselves El Chapitos, ‘The Little Chapos’,” he explains.

“They have struck up a remarkable alliance with one of their former sworn enemies, uh, in a rival cartel called the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

“It's run by a guy named El Mencho and these two groups have for years been engaged in, often bloody and murderous, competition over turf and profits in Mexico.

“The Chapitos have found themselves in a quite vulnerable position vis-a-vis not only other cartels but with warring factions within the Sinaloa cartel itself.

“So they decided to essentially get into bed with their former enemies,” he continued.

“And as one smart analyst put it: ‘It would've been like during the height of the Cold War if the East Coast had seceded from the United States and struck up a strategic alliance with the Soviets.’

“That's how counterintuitive this very risky move by The Chapitos was so the Sinaloa cartel has essentially divided.”

You can listen to Alan’s full interview, ‘Episode 1088: Deadly alliance in Sinaloa Cartel threatens flood of fentanyl to Europe’, available now wherever you get your podcasts.