New Delhi, Washington D.C.: When the new boss of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, sat down with Joe Rogan for an episode of his ultra-popular podcast, he did not hold back. He was neither cryptic nor vague. He dropped bombs that echo across borders.
“I literally just got off the phone with the Indian government. I said, I need your help,” he said.
It was a warning wrapped in urgency. A man raised by Gujarati immigrants, now helming the FBI, calling on India – not out of courtesy but necessity.
Patel painted a sharp picture. The United States is drowning in fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that killed over 74,000 Americans in 2023 alone. But the drug does not only appear on American streets. It travels. And India, he says, has found itself in the middle of a dirty global route – a China-linked fentanyl supply chain.
“They are going to places like India, and I am also doing operations in India. They are having the Mexican cartels now make this fentanyl down in Mexico still,” he revealed.
“I just got off the phone with the Indian govt. I told them I need their help,” FBI Director Kash Patel tells Joe Rogan on fighting America’s drugs crisis
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India is not using fentanyl, but it is being used. “You don’t hear fentanyl deaths in India. You don’t really hear fentanyl deaths in England, Australia, New Zealand or Five Eyes partners in Canada. The CCP have used it as a directed approach because we are their adversary,” Patel told Rogan.
That is a bold claim and a chilling one. China’s not after cash, Patel said, it is after chaos. “They are not making a ton of money off it. So it is really just for that purpose,” he insisted.
That purpose? “Why don’t we go and take out generations of young men and women who might grow up to serve in the United States military or become a cop or become a teacher?” he asked.
It is not just America’s southern border in play anymore. The supply chain, Patel says, is morphing, heading north.
“They are flying it into Vancouver. They are taking the precursors up to Canada, manufacturing it up there and doing their global distribution routes from up there because we were being so effective down south,” he claimed.
India’s role is not passive anymore. The FBI is in. Patel says American agents are working directly on Indian soil, hand-in-hand with top Indian law enforcement.
“We are going to find these companies that buy it, and we are going to shut them down. We are going to sanction them. We are going to arrest them where we can. We are going to indict them in America if we can. We are going to indict them in India if we can,” he claimed.
For India, this cooperation is a new test. For Patel, it is personal. His Indian heritage is not only a footnote in his resume. It is a cornerstone of his drive to forge serious ties with New Delhi.
The fentanyl crisis may be global. But is it targeted? That is the question Patel raised and one that stunned many listeners. He believes the drug is not merely a public health emergency. It is a “tier one national security threat”. And he is asking Five Eyes allies, including India, to act before it is too late.
“The fentanyl itself is not being deployed into your country, but it is there being manufactured. The CCP just has not directed it at you yet, and they know that,” Patel warned.
With no public response yet from Indian or Chinese officials, Patel’s words still hang in the air. But one thing is clear: India just became a frontline partner in America’s war on fentanyl.
And this war may be a lot more geopolitical than we thought.
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