Saving 100,000 Lives Means Confronting Drug Empires Inside the United States
By Ya Libnan , Op.Ed
More than 100,000 Americans die every year from drug overdoses. This level of loss is not accidental, and it is not driven by street dealers alone. It is the result of large, organized, multi-billion-dollar criminal networks operating primarily inside the United States.
U.S. law-enforcement investigations have long shown that transnational criminal organizations do not rely on major publicly listed American corporations. Instead, they exploit anonymous shell companies, front businesses, freight operators, and cash-intensive retail networks incorporated in the U.S.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, most illicit drug profits are laundered domestically, using real estate, trade-based money laundering, false invoicing, and weakly regulated LLCs. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has repeatedly warned that anonymous shell companies remain one of the greatest enablers of large-scale drug trafficking in America.
This is a matter of scale.
To kill 100,000 people a year requires industrial-level logistics: bulk importation, warehousing, nationwide distribution, retail sales, and financial laundering. That infrastructure exists inside the United States.
Yet enforcement priorities seem upside down.
The U.S. has demonstrated the ability to conduct bold overseas operations, even capturing foreign leaders in heavily guarded environments. If such capabilities exist, a basic question must be asked:
Why is it easier to chase enemies abroad than dismantle the drug empires killing Americans at home?
Federal cases and investigative reporting consistently identify Los Angeles International Airport as a major entry point for illicit drugs and precursor chemicals. An airport is a controlled environment—far easier to secure than conducting operations in foreign countries.
Saving lives requires political will, not foreign distractions.
It is time for President Donald Trump to focus enforcement where it matters most:
ports of entry, shell companies, money laundering, and U.S.-based distributors and financiers.
America does not lack power.
It lacks focus.
If saving 100,000 lives is truly the goal, the war on drugs must finally be fought at home.
