>>752
Thursday, September 10, 2020
U.S. Department of Justice
Remarks by Attorney General William P. Barr
at a Press Conference Announcing the Results of
Operation Crystal Shield
ttps://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/remarks-attorney-general-william-p-barr-press-conference-announcing-results-operation

...But today I want to talk about another serious challenge to public safety,
one that is closely associated with violence, and
that is the surging of trafficking in methamphetamine.
Now we’ve all heard about the opioid crisis and that
certainly has been, and remains,
a crisis for our country.
We’ve heard about all of the overdoses.
Now, for the first three years of this administration,
we had been able to, initially, flatten the curve, and then
even reduce opioid overdoses,
and most of this has come by substantial progress in
the abuse of prescription drugs,
lawful prescription drugs.
But unfortunately, this year, and this is perhaps associated with
COVID in some way,
we’ve seen an increase in opioid overdoses.
Some of this has been fueled, if not most of it, by a shift to
synthetic opioids, principally fentanyl, which is a very deadly drug.
Nevertheless, and that remains a challenge for us to go after that fentanyl,
which, many of you may know,
the precursors largely come from China, go into Mexico, and
Mexico manufactures it and sends it - the cartels -
send it up into the United States.