The most recent knowledge from U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) exhibits an uptick within the quantity of fentanyl seized close to the American northern border with Canada — however the portions intercepted stay a tiny fraction of what is coming from Mexico.
The figures present U.S. border guards hauled in a comparatively miniscule quantity of the lethal drug within the first few months of the 2024-25 fiscal 12 months — usually reporting 0.5 kilograms or much less seized — earlier than a soar in April and Might, when officers captured six and 14 kilograms, respectively, close to the Canadian boundary.
These busts imply extra fentanyl has been seized alongside the northern border thus far this 12 months than in all of 2023-24. Between October 2024 and Might, the U.S. has captured 26 kilograms in comparison with the 19.5 kilograms taken over the 12 earlier months.
On the U.S. southwestern border with Mexico, by comparability, officers have thus far seized some 3,700 kilograms of fentanyl this fiscal 12 months — sufficient product to doubtlessly kill a whole lot of 1000’s of drug customers and simply dwarfing what officers uncovered coming from Canada.
A CBP spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark for this story.
The border knowledge doesn’t supply specifics on how or the place the fentanyl was seized, or why there was a notable uptick close to the northern boundary within the final two months. What is thought is that there have been seven “seizure occasions” in April and 5 in Might.
The unlawful fentanyl seized by border officers has taken the type of tablets and powder. (Mark Schiefelbein/The Related Press)
In an interview with CBC Information, Canada’s fentanyl czar, Kevin Brosseau, mentioned he is involved in regards to the Individuals taking in additional of the drug, saying a single gram captured wherever close to the border is an excessive amount of.
Brosseau mentioned it is potential that, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s deal with the southern border, some felony components could also be turning to Canada.
“If extra strain is placed on one facet, they’re going to look to go elsewhere,” Brosseau mentioned of the cartels that transfer these medicine.
“We have got to be inhospitable,” he mentioned, promising to proceed an aggressive method to intercepting medicine and people who visitors them. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s authorities not too long ago launched laws that might assist just do that.
“We’re actually centered on closing them off,” Brosseau mentioned of drug-toting criminals. “Something going south from Canada must be stopped.”
Canada’s fentanyl czar Kevin Brosseau was appointed in February quickly after the U.S. commerce warfare started. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
Whereas troubled by the slight uptick in fentanyl seizures, Brosseau mentioned he took some consolation from a brand new report by the Manhattan Institute, a U.S.-based think-tank, that exhibits Canada has not been the primary provider of fentanyl to the States — removed from it.
From 2013 to 2024, 99 per cent of tablets and 97 per cent of powder-form fentanyl captured in giant seizures at U.S. land borders got here from Mexico, researchers discovered — with “giant” being outlined as over a kilogram of powder or greater than 1,000 tablets, portions indicative of wholesale trafficking.
“The better supply of this drawback for the U.S. is Mexico and that is yet one more research that confirms that,” Brosseau mentioned.
“It replicates what we have been saying from the get-go,” he mentioned.
Brosseau says he speaks daily with U.S. officers. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
The report discovered the sample of Mexico being an outsized supply of fentanyl for the U.S. has held up lately — regardless of Trump’s claims that the drug is “pouring in” from Canada and justifies punitive tariffs. Carney is locked in negotiations to get Trump’s fentanyl-related border tariffs, and the opposite ones, lifted by month’s finish.
In 2023-24, U.S. counties on the border with Mexico, which make up 2.35 per cent of the American inhabitants, accounted for about 40 per cent of huge fentanyl seizures, researchers discovered.
The counties alongside the border with Canada, in the meantime, which maintain 3.1 per cent of the U.S. inhabitants, accounted for lower than 2.5 per cent of huge seizures.
WATCH | U.S. medicine and weapons are coming into Canada: 
U.S. medicine and weapons pouring into Canada, border knowledge exhibits
As U.S. President Donald Trump threatens tariffs towards Canada over fentanyl crossing the border into the U.S., new Canada Border Companies Company (CBSA) knowledge reveals medicine and weapons pouring into Canada from the US, with the quantity of medication seized by Canadian officers doubling in two years.
In an interview with CBC Information, Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon College’s Heinz Faculty in Pittsburgh and a co-author of that analysis report, mentioned “the stuff we seize on the northern border is a really small share” of the U.S. provide.
“Does any fentanyl cross from Canada to the US? Certain. Some quantity of medication crosses the border between any two nations on this planet. The true query is the place is the majority of it coming from? And it isn’t from Canada,” he mentioned.
Whereas Trump and his officers level to an uptick in fentanyl seizures on the northern border, Caulkins mentioned there is a “gigantic enhance within the proportion as a result of it’s ranging from a particularly low base.”
In 2023-24, for instance, CBP captured lower than a kilogram, earlier than taking in about 19.5 kilograms the following 12 months. That works out to a roughly 1,850 per cent enhance — an eye-popping determine that obscures how little is absolutely being seized.
Whereas fentanyl is produced and trafficked in Canada, knowledge exhibits way more comes from Mexico. (Mark Schiefelbein/The Related Press)
U.S. Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem raised these proportion will increase throughout a latest go to to Michiganthe place she mentioned former prime minister Justin Trudeau was a “prepare wreck” and Trump and his staff “are usually not letting down our guard.”
Whereas the trafficking figures are comparatively small, that does not imply Canada is a fentanyl-free zone, Caulkins mentioned.
In any case, greater than 52,000 obvious opioid toxicity deaths had been reported between January 2016 and December 2024 in Canada, in accordance with federal knowledge. In 2024, 74 per cent of these deaths concerned fentanyl.
Late final 12 months, police in B.C. busted a so-called drug “tremendous lab” that authorities consider was producing fentanyl for each the home and U.S. markets. Federal investigators seized 54 kilograms of fentanyl.
“For each Canada and the US, the dimensions of dying is simply astonishing. I do not need to make it sound just like the implication of that is, ‘Hey, simply loosen up,” Caulkins mentioned.
“However the motion between our two borders is absolutely not the essential story. We’re alike in affected by this fentanyl drawback that neither of us are inflicting.”
U.S. Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned the nation will not ‘let down our guard’ in terms of Canada. (Paul Sancya/The Related Press)
Caulkins mentioned Canada and the U.S. can be effectively served by working much more intently collectively to attempt to crack down on fentanyl, saying an antagonistic method is counterproductive.
“If you happen to actually care about controlling your border, crucial factor to do is figure in a co-operative approach with the nation that is on the opposite facet,” he mentioned.
That is what Brosseau is making an attempt to do.
Brosseau mentioned that in his 5 months on the job, he is helped foster extra intelligence-sharing between the 2 nations, which has helped result in extra seizures right here.
Simply final month, Ontario Provincial Police reported latest legislation enforcement work resulted in the seizure of some 43.5 kilograms of fentanylequal to roughly 435,000 doubtlessly deadly street-level doses.
Brosseau says latest outcomes from legislation enforcement present how critically Canada is taking unlawful fentanyl. (Chris Younger/The Canadian Press)
“Seemingly each week there’s one other important bust. I feel that speaks to the truth that there is a better depth to the hassle,” Brosseau mentioned.
And the czar mentioned he speaks each working day to the U.S. Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage, which studies on to Trump, and the Individuals there have proven “deep appreciation and recognition” of Canada’s efforts to get a deal with on fentanyl.
“Canada is on it. We’re doing our half to be an excellent neighbour,” he mentioned.
