BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The United States has blacklisted 23 countries as major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries, including India, China and Pakistan.
Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Myanmar, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela are the other countries that President Donald Trump identified as major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries.
The Department of State said that a country's presence on the updated list is not necessarily a reflection of its government's counterdrug efforts or level of cooperation with the United States. It made it clear that the reason countries are placed on the list is 'the combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs or precursor chemicals to be transited or produced, even if a government has engaged in robust and diligent narcotics control and law enforcement measures'.
Trump designated Afghanistan, Bolivia, Myanmar, Colombia, and Venezuela as having failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to both adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements and to take the measures required by section 489(a)(1) of the FAA.
'While the United States will devote all necessary resources to punish criminals enabling the production, transportation, and smuggling of illicit drugs across our borders, I will also call on countries where these drugs originate and transit to fulfill their obligations and shut off these supplies - or face serious consequences,' Trump said.
He urged the Chinese leadership to take stronger and sustained action to cut down the flows of synthetic narcotics, including nitazenes and methamphetamine, and prosecute the drug criminals facilitating them.
Transnational organized crime's trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly illicit drugs into the United States has created a national emergency, including a public health crisis in the United States that remains the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 44, the State Department said. More than 40 percent of Americans know someone who has died from an opioid overdose, and in 2024 the United States averaged over 200 deaths daily due to illicit drugs. This remains unacceptable, and my Administration is deploying every aspect of American power and unprecedented resources to defeat this threat to our Nation.
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