Trump declares fentanyl a "weapon of mass destruction" in historic executive order

President Donald Trump, through an executive order, declared the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction, in a historic move that will give the federal government greater legal grounds to combat cartels designated as terrorist organizations.

"Today we are here to honor our military men and women for their central role in the protection of our border," the president said from the White House. "With this historic executive order I will sign today, we are formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction."

"No bomb does what this is doing," Trump sentenced during the signing of the measure.

In his executive order, Trump described fentanyl as an illicit substance that "is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic."

"Two milligrams, an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitutes a lethal dose. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses," reads the order.

The presidential move comes amid a military counternarcotics campaign in the region. In recent months, President Trump has designated Mexican cartels, Colombian guerrillas, and MS-13, and also Venezuelan criminal groups Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles, both groups directly linked to the regime of dictator Nicolas Maduro, according to Washington.

In the Caribbean and the Pacific, the U.S. military deployed an imposing naval and air force that is monitoring the sea toprevent cocaine and fentanyl trafficking from Venezuela and Colombia. So far, the U.S. Army has sunk a total of 20 vessels linked to drug trafficking, leaving a total of 80 dead in these attacks.

Elevating fentanyl to the category of weapon of mass destruction would give greater legal backing to the White House and the Pentagon to combat the organizations that traffic this powerful opioid and its precursors.

Notably, the measure directs the Attorney General to immediately initiate investigations and prosecutions for fentanyl trafficking, including the application of aggravating factors and sentencing variations, and empowers the Treasury Department and the Department of State to act against assets and financial institutions linked to the manufacture, distribution, and sale of the opioid and its precursor chemicals.

The order also instructs the War Department, in coordination with the Department of Justice, to evaluate the provision of enhanced homeland security resources in emergency scenarios involving weapons of mass destruction, as well as to update protocols for responding to chemical incidents within U.S. territory to explicitly include the threat of fentanyl.

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security should identify fentanyl smuggling networks through the use of intelligencelinked to weapons of mass destruction and nonproliferation.

From the White House, they maintain that the decision seeks to focus and coordinate all federal government resources in the face of what the Trump Administration considers a direct chemical threat to national security.

"My highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens," the text of the executive order states.

The classification of fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction is without recent precedent in U.S. policy. It could have far-reaching geopolitical implications, particularly on the relationship with China—the primary source of the precursor chemicals—and on the legal framework underpinning the current Washington in the Western Hemisphere.

The Trump administration insists the ultimate goal is to dismantle the cartels, eradicate fentanyl from American streets, and curb a crisis that, according to official data, has become a leading cause of death among working-age Americans.

The move could also mean increased military, legal, and diplomatic pressure against dictator Maduro, who has a formal US indictment for drug trafficking and a $50,000,000 bounty on his head. Trump has promised that, very soon, ground attacks against cartels will begin and did not rule out that the Cartel de los Soles and Tren de Aragua will be direct targets in Venezuela.