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Nearly two decades after drug addiction sent him to rehab as a teenager, 36-year-old Michael Nalewaja had settled into a quiet life in Alaska where he worked as an electrician.<\/p>\n
That all came crashing down days before Thanksgiving 2025, when he and a mutual friend unknowingly took a lethal cocktail of fentanyl and carfentanil they may have mistaken for cocaine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard the word \u2018autopsy\u2019 and I literally just collapsed to the floor,\u201d his mother, Kelley Nalewaja said, recalling the call she received from his wife. \u201cEven if somebody had been there prepared with Narcan \u2014 even if somebody had called 911 in time \u2014 he was not going to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carfentanil, a weapons-grade chemical that authorities say is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl, has seen a drastic resurgence across the U.S., killing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users. <\/p>\n
The rise coincides with a recent crackdown by the Chinese government on the sale of precursors used to make fentanyl. Those regulations are likely prompting traffickers in Mexico to use carfentanil to boost the potency of a weakened version of fentanyl, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence bulletins reviewed by The Associated Press. <\/p>\n
The surge of a drug so deadly that less than a poppy seed-sized amount can kill a person comes as fentanyl seizures and overall drug overdose deaths continue a multiyear decline. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re talking about not even a grain of salt that could be potentially lethal,\u201d said Frank Tarentino, the DEA’s chief of operations for its northeast region, which stretches from Maine to Virginia. \u201cThis presents an extremely frightening proposition for substance abuse dependent people who seek opioids on the street today.\u201d<\/p>\n
A decade ago, carfentanil exploded into the North American drug supply, causing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users to overdose, only to see a major dip after China banned it,<\/a> closing a key regulatory loophole in the U.S.<\/p>\n But the situation has shifted dramatically in recent years.<\/p>\n In 2025, DEA labs identified carfentanil 1,400 times in U.S. drug seizures, compared with 145 in 2023 and only 54 in 2022, according to DEA records viewed by AP. <\/p>\n Traffickers in Mexico may be experimenting with producing carfentanil themselves, authorities say, while others could be procuring it from China-based vendors skirting the country’s regulations by spamming online forums in other countries with ads for the drug. <\/p>\n Complicating matters for the cartels are the extreme dangers associated with manufacturing carfentanil, Tarentino said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can’t just dabble in this,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not some mad scientist on Reddit you\u2019re going to get to go out to a rudimentary laboratory in Mexico to make carfentanil.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. overdose deaths have fallen<\/a> for more than two years \u2014 the longest drop in decades. Experts point to several possible explanations, including the overdose-reversing drug naloxone<\/a> being more widely available and the expansion of addiction treatment. Some have also tied it to the regulatory changes the U.S. has pressed for in China.<\/p>\n Experts say that even multiple high doses of naloxone might not be enough to reverse an overdose when carfentanil is involved.<\/p>\n Fentanyl seizures, along with several other illicit drugs, have also dipped. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that fentanyl seizures plunged<\/a> to about 12,000 pounds (5,443 kilograms) in 2025 \u2014 less than half the amount seized in 2023.<\/p>\n But even as fentanyl numbers fall, it remains a major focus of the DEA. Just recently, the agency’s proposed budget included a $362 million increase centered on cartel-driven fentanyl trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who takes a pill that is not prescribed to them by their doctor is playing a game of Russian roulette with their life,\u201d said Sara Carter, President Donald Trump’s drug czar. \u201cBut if those terrorists think they can continue this chemical warfare without consequences, they are wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n While the prevalence of carfentanil still pales in comparison to fentanyl, experts are nevertheless alarmed by the increase of a substance researched for years<\/a> as a chemical weapon and deployed by Russian forces on Chechen separatists in 2002. <\/p>\n The DEA’s annual quota for lawfully manufactured carfentanil \u2014 veterinarians use it to tranquilize elephants and other large animals \u2014 is just 20 grams, an amount that can fit in the palm of your hand. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a biological weapon,\u201d said Michael King Jr., founder of the Opioid Awareness Foundation. \u201cIf the world thinks we had a problem with fentanyl, that\u2019s minute compared to what we\u2019re going to be dealing with with carfentanil.\u201d <\/p>\n In 2024, overdose deaths involving carfentanil nearly tripled compared to the previous year, with 413 deaths across 42 states and Washington, D.C., according to the most recent data available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. <\/p>\n \u201cCarfentanil definitely has that potential of spreading throughout the United States unless law enforcement really focuses in on carfentanil and they develop intelligence as to how these drug addicts are getting it,\u201d said Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations at the DEA. <\/p>\n In recent months, the DEA has documented several large seizures of carfentanil. In October, the DEA Los Angeles Field Division<\/a> found 628,000 pills containing carfentanil, while in September, officials seized more than 50,000 counterfeit M30 pills from a person at a gas station in Washington<\/a> state that turned out to be a mixture of carfentanil and acetaminophen. <\/p>\n In some cases, frequent drug users have become tolerant to fentanyl and are seeking out carfentanil, despite the danger, because of the sudden euphoria it promises, explained Rob Tanguay, senior medical lead for addiction services with Recovery Alberta, a health agency in Canada. It appeals to the drug market, he said, because so little of it goes such a long way toward supply. <\/p>\n \u201cThe toughest part about all of this,\u201d he said, \u201cis that this is all about money.\u201d <\/p>\n After Michael Nalewaja’s death, his mother decided against a large funeral.<\/p>\n Instead, she organized a town hall in her hometown of El Dorado Hills, California, bringing together local officials along with mothers who had gone through something similar. <\/p>\n As she grieves her son, an adept salesman full of charisma who had recently gotten a national award by the electrical union, she’s pushing for major legislative and judicial changes so others don’t go through what she did because of a drug she said was never meant for humans.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an OD; it\u2019s not an overdose,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a murder weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n