Arturo Sanchez Jimenez
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, December 27, 2025, p. 5
Despite the notable reduction in fentanyl seizures recorded in the first year of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s government, the border with Mexico continues to be the main route of entry of this illicit drug into the United States, according to data from the US Government’s Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP).
In fiscal year 2025 in the United States, which began in October 2024 and ended last September, US authorities seized 5.1 tons of fentanyl on its southern border, a 45 percent drop compared to the previous year.
In contrast, 12.47 kilograms were seized on the border with Canada and in the current fiscal year no seizures have yet been reported.
This decline on the southern border has been highlighted by the Sheinbaum administration as a direct result of his government’s security strategy, which focuses on the use of intelligence to dismantle smuggling networks and block the flow of chemical precursors to the north.
However, data so far in fiscal year 2026 indicates a possible change in trend. In the first months of the period, seizures on the border with Mexico increased again, with seizures exceeding 700 and 800 kilograms per month. Although these figures still remain below the maximums reached in 2023 and 2024, they represent a clear increase compared to the levels observed during 2025, when monthly seizures were below 600 kilograms, on average.
Although the 2025 figures marked a recent historical low compared to 9.3 tons confiscated in 2024 and 12.2 tons in 2023, the southern border remains the epicenter of synthetic opioid trafficking into the United States.
And according to recent US reports, between 97 and 99 percent of the fentanyl seized in large operations enters from Mexican territory.
Meanwhile, the northern border of the United States with Canada registers considerably lower volumes. Between 2023 and 2025, monthly seizures rarely exceeded 200 kilograms and, in most cases, remained below 50. Even in the months with the highest seizures, the quantities seized were marginal compared to those recorded on the southern border.
