Fentanyl seizures occur on the northern U.S. border, but Canada remains a small player
The number of fentanyl caught near the northern U.S. border with Canada rose – but the number of intercepted remains a small percentage of Mexico's coming in, according to the latest data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
These figures show that in the first few months of the fiscal year 2024-25, our border guards dragged with relatively small amounts of lethal drugs, usually reporting a harvest of 0.5 kg or less – before the jumps in April and May, officials captured six and 14 kg, respectively, near the Canadian border.
These busts meant that fentanyl has been occupied so far this year along the northern border, not 2023-24. Between October and May 2024, the United States has captured 26 kg, compared with the previous 12 kg of 19.5 kg.
By contrast, on the southwestern border between the U.S. and Mexico, officials have so far occupied about 3,700 kilograms of fentanyl in this fiscal year, enough to kill hundreds of thousands of drug users and easily lower officials found by officials from Canada.
A CBP spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The border data provide no details on how or where fentanyl is or why there has been a significant rise near the northern border in the past two months. As we all know, there are seven “seizures” in April and five in May.
Canadian fentanyl tsar Kevin Brosseau said in an interview with CBC News that he was worried about Americans taking more drugs and said that one gram captured anywhere near the border was too much.
Brosso said some criminals may turn to Canada as U.S. President Donald Trump pays attention to the southern border.
“If one side puts extra pressure on them, they'll go somewhere else,” Brosso said of the cartel carrying the medicines.
“We have to be unfriendly,” he said, pledging to continue to take a positive approach to intercept drugs and those that are mobile. Prime Minister Mark Carney's administration recently introduced legislation that would help achieve this.
“We're really focused on shutting them down,” Brosso said of drug addict criminals. “Everything from southern Canada should stop.”
Brosso said despite the slight rise in fentanyl seizures, he felt comforted by a new report from the Manhattan Institute, which suggests that Canada is not the main supplier of fentanyl, far from that.
From 2013 to 2024, researchers found that 99% and 97% of the powdered fentanyl in the pills captured with a large number of seizures in the U.S. land border are from Mexico.
“The larger source of this problem in the United States is Mexico, and this is a study that confirms this,” Brosso said.
“It replicates what we said from the beginning,” he said.
The report found that despite Trump's claim that the drug is “influxing” in Canada and justifying punitive tariffs, Mexico has been a large source of fentanyl in the United States in recent years. Carney locked in talks to get Trump's fentanyl-related border tariffs, while others filed by the end of the month.
The researchers found that in 2023-24, counties on the U.S.-Mexico border accounted for 2.35% of the U.S. population, and about 40% of the Great Fentanyl Seizures.
Meanwhile, counties along the border with Canada account for 3.1% of the U.S. population and 2.5% of the major epilepsy episodes.
As U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Canada rather than tariffs on Fentanyl crossing the border into the United States, the number of drugs caught by Canadian military officers increased by two years, according to the New Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).
“What we're grabbing at the North Frontier is a small part of the U.S. supply,” said Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Heinz College, Pittsburgh, a co-author of the study, in an interview with CBC News.
“Is there a fentanyl cross from Canada to the United States. Of course. Some drugs cross the borders between two countries in the world. The real question is where most of them come from? And not from Canada.”
Trump and his officials noted the increase in fentanyl seizures on the northern border, and Carlkins said, “The percentage has increased dramatically because it starts with extremely low bases.”
For example, in 2023-24, CBP captured less than one kilogram and then consumed about 19.5 kilograms next year. This can increase the growth by about 1,850% – a shocking figure masked the number of really caught.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who increased those percentages during a recent visit to Michigan, said former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was a “train wreck” and that Trump and his team “had not disappointed our guards.”
While trafficking figures are relatively small, that doesn’t mean Canada is a fentanyl-free area, Calkins said.
After all, there were more than 52,000 obvious opioid toxic deaths in Canada between January 2016 and December 2024, according to federal data. In 2024, 74% of these deaths involved fentanyl.
Late last year, police in British Columbia destroyed the so-called “super lab” and authorities believe the drug is producing fentanyl for domestic and American markets. Federal investigators seized 54 kilograms of fentanyl.
“For Canada and the United States, the scale of death is just amazing. I don't want it to sound like that means, 'Hey, relax.”
“But the movement between our two boundaries is really not a big story. We both suffered from the fentanyl problem that we both caused.”
Carlkins said Canada and the United States will work hard to fight fentanyl by working closer together, saying the antagonism approach backfires.
“If you really care about controlling the borders, the most important thing is to work in a cooperative way with countries on the other hand,” he said.
That's what Brosseau tries to do.
Brosso said he helped foster more intelligence sharing between the two countries during his five-month period, which helped cause more seizures here.
Just last month, the Ontario Provincial Police Department reported recent law enforcement efforts that resulted in seizures of about 43.5 kilograms of fentanyl, equivalent to about 435,000 potentially lethal street-level doses.
“It seems like there is another major bankruptcy every week. I think that shows that this effort is more intense,” Brosso said.
The Tsar said he spoke to the U.S. National Office of Drug Control Policy every weekday, which reported directly to Trump, where Americans showed “deep appreciation and recognition” of Canada's efforts to deal with fentanyl.
“Canada is on top. We are working to be a good neighbor,” he said.
