OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
10:30 AM – Thursday, September 4, 2025
Over 300,000 kilograms of chemicals used to produce methamphetamine have been seized by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) investigation sector in Houston, Texas.
On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons announced the successful capture of chemicals that were intended for labs under the control of Mexico’s Sinaloa Drug Cartel.
“This is the largest seizure of precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine in U.S. history,” Pirro wrote on X Wednesday. “China was sending over 700,000 lbs on the high seas to the Sinaloa Cartel before my office seized them. Because President Trump and Secretary Rubio declared the Sinaloa Cartel a Foreign Terrorist Organization, we can now strike faster and hit harder.”
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The import and export of chemicals such as these can be legal depending on the case, but are regulated. A seizure warrant obtained by the D.C. attorney’s office provided legal authority to collect the chemicals, which was made possible by the Sinaloa Cartel’s new Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation on January 20th from President Donald Trump.
Pirro included a video on social media of her standing among the 1,300 barrels of methamphetamine precursor chemicals—which reached about waist-height next to the judge—emphasizing that it would take 24 18-wheelers to transport all of them to a secure storage facility.
“The bottom line is this,” she declared. “Whenever there is an effort on the part of foreign terrorist organizations to create drugs that are killing Americans, we will seize them whether it’s on the high seas, or whether it’s in the country or a foreign country.”
The D.C. attorney’s office released a news statement on Wednesday detailing the impact of the seizure.
“These many barrels of precursor chemicals are directly linked to one of the most dangerous and deadly terrorist networks, the Sinaloa Cartel. It’s one of the most violent and brutal terrorist organizations in the world. They are responsible for countless deaths, devastation, and destruction of communities in the U.S. and abroad,” said Director of Field Operations Jud Murdock of Customs and Border Protection, Houston.
“This represents one of the largest interdictions of its kind in history and highlights the critical role of collaboration and intel sharing in combating threats posed by drug trafficking organization and terrorist groups,” he continued.
The chemicals, the official statement explained, may have been used to create nearly 190,000 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth approximately $569 million had they not been intercepted. Agents took six shipping containers each of benzyl alcohol, which weighed 164,880 kilos, and N-methyl formamide, which weighed 151,560 kilos. Both are liquid solvents used to manufacture pharmaceuticals.
In Fiscal Year 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) confiscated a total of 78,925 kilos of methamphetamine along the entire southwest border, according to the attorney’s office.
This was a multi-agency operation involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Defense Joint Interagency Task Force, U.S. Northern Command and the Texas National Guard.
This is part of the Attorney General’s February 5th directive, “calling for the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations by harnessing the resources of the Department of Justice and empowering federal prosecutors throughout the country to work urgently with the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government toward the goal of eliminating these threats to U.S. sovereignty.”
But it is not, however, the first time federal officials announced the seizure of such dangerous materials.
On Tuesday, federal law enforcement officials also announced a successful crackdown on drug trafficking in New England over the course of one week.
The DEA said that agents confiscated about 500 pounds of drugs, including fentanyl sticks, methamphetamine, and fake pills, many of which contained deadly levels of fentanyl. Some of the illicit drugs were branded with the Sinaloa name, according to Jarod Forget, a special agent in charge of the New England Division. The cartel also allegedly markets the dangerous counterfeit pills on social media.
“They’re directly targeting young people, trying to trick them into consuming a fake pill. They’ll take payment on apps online, everything can be done on your phone, then they communicate on encrypted apps,” Forget said.
Along with the drug seizures, officials also arrested 171 alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“These are high-level arrests, not low-level retail distribution. They are members of the Sinaloa cartel,” Forget confirmed.
Judge Pirro celebrated Wednesday’s confiscation of thousands of pounds of dangerous material by reminding viewers that the crackdown is not only in Houston and signing off by saying, “You never know where we’re going to be tomorrow.”
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