Where do illegal drugs come from?

President Donald Trump has authorized at least 21 airstrikes on boats reportedly ferrying illicit drugs from South America to the United States since Sept. 2, 2025. On the first day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order designating drug cartels as global terrorist organizations. He used that designation to justify the strikes and to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom he accuses of encouraging drug trafficking. Trump argues “narco-terrorists” have infiltrated governments across the Western Hemisphere and flood the United States with drugs that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year. Fentanyl racks up the most fatalities. But experts say targeting Venezuela won’t disrupt the fentanyl trade.

What drugs does Venezuela produce? The country predominately produces cocaine or functions as a thoroughfare for cocaine producers. Drug boats leaving the South American nation’s shores bring the stimulant to Europe, where demand has recently skyrocketed and legal penalties are not as stiff as in the United States. The small vessels drop their cargo at ports in the Caribbean where it is loaded covertly onto larger freighters, according to a report compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Venezuela has only recently begun growing significant amounts of the coca plant, the organization InSight Crime noted in another report, with the vast majority still cultivated in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.

How prevalent is cocaine use in the United States? Illicit cocaine use peaked during the 1980s and ’90s and has since declined, though it is still one of the most commonly abused drugs. U.S. Sentencing Commission data from 2024 shows powder cocaine and crack cocaine together account for 23.3% of drug trafficking offenses, making it the second most trafficked drug. About 22.1% of cases involved fentanyl or its analogs and 45.8% involved methamphetamine. Today, cocaine is often laced with fentanyl or produced in conjunction with an opiate. Much of the cocaine that reaches America’s border flows from the western side of South America through the Pacific on vessels originating in Colombia and Peru.

If Venezuela doesn’t produce fentanyl, where does it come from? Chinese traffickers began exporting fentanyl to the United States in 2013 but switched to shipping the precursor chemicals used to make the drug after Beijing imposed stricter restrictions on the substance in response to U.S. pressure. Most of these chemicals reach Mexican ports on container ships where cartels produce the finished product and smuggle it overland into the United States through ports of entry in cars and trucks. In 2024, fentanyl comprised 93% of illicit opioid seizures by weight. The drug is a powerful depressant that slows down bodily functions and produces feelings of euphoria. It’s often used to treat severe pain in advanced cancer patients or post surgery.

What other countries produce large amounts of drugs that end up on U.S. streets? China also supplies cartels with the majority of the precursor chemicals used to produce methamphetamine. The Asian nation is also behind a dangerous class of synthetic opioids called nitazenes that are even more powerful than fentanyl. America’s heroin supply primarily stems from opium harvested from poppies grown in Southwest and Southeast Asia or Latin America, which Mexican cartels smuggle across the U.S.-Mexico border.