In what U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro called the most significant chemical seizure in American history, federal law enforcement intercepted two massive shipments of drug precursor chemicals bound from China to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. Speaking at a press conference Wednesday in Pasadena, Texas, Pirro detailed the interdictions—made in international waters off Panama—which prevented enough material to produce 420,000 pounds of methamphetamine from reaching cartel labs.
“These chemicals were not headed to pharmaceutical plants,” Pirro said. “They were headed to terrorist-run meth labs in Mexico with the explicit purpose of flooding American streets with poison.”
The seizure, a joint operation involving ICE, CBP, DEA, FBI, and the Department of Defense, included 363,000 pounds of benzyl alcohol and 334,000 pounds of N-methyl formamide—both chemicals closely monitored by the DEA for their role in producing synthetic drugs like meth and fentanyl.
Pirro didn’t hold back: “Every day, tons of chemicals that are used to create synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico in China’s undeclared war against America and her citizens.”
The shipments originated in Shanghai and were en route to the Sinaloa Cartel—now officially designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the Trump administration as of January 2025. That designation provided the legal grounds for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. to act under terrorism seizure authorities.
According to Pirro, the Sinaloa Cartel—once treated like an international drug syndicate, now rightfully categorized as a terrorist threat—operates labs capable of churning out a ton of methamphetamine per week. The intercepted chemicals alone could have generated over half a billion dollars worth of meth on the streets of Houston, with value climbing sharply in eastern U.S. cities.
“This is industrial-scale drug warfare,” said Pirro. “It would take 24 tractor-trailers just to transport the barrels we seized. That’s how vast this operation was.”
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons and senior officials from HSI, DEA, CBP, and the FBI joined Pirro in underscoring the international threat posed by the chemical supply lines from China to Mexico—and the critical importance of treating drug cartels not as criminal groups, but as enemies of the state.
Thanks to the Trump administration’s reclassification of the Sinaloa Cartel as a terrorist organization, prosecutors now have broader authority to strike at cartel supply chains and partners—foreign and domestic. It’s a long-overdue change in posture after years of half-measures.
For decades, American families have suffered the consequences of weak borders, toothless enforcement, and international negligence. This historic seizure signals a welcome shift: treating narco-terrorists and their foreign enablers like the enemies they are.
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