U.S. Customs and Border Protection

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Oct. 9, 2020, seized more than 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl and heroin as part of the second largest bust along the Southwest border in the agency's history.

MEXICO CITY — The DEA has just released its 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, an annual publication to understand the impact of drug trafficking in the United States.

According to the federal agency, the pandemic has not seriously impacted these illicit activities — and Mexican drug cartels are even taking some advantage from it.

According to the DEA, Mexican cartels are the greatest criminal drug threats in the U.S., and their capacities were not significantly diminished by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The agency says Mexican cartels are increasingly responsible for producing and supplying fentanyl, as they also continue to expand in the U.S. methamphetamine market.

And, while these criminal organizations may have encountered initial difficulties during the pandemic obtaining prime materials, they faced no significant impacts from public health restrictions.

The agency says the Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation cartels have used the pandemic to artificially inflate pricing for methamphetamine in the U.S.