In the two-week operation, dubbed Operation Lionfish-Mayag III, law enforcement arrested 386 people and seized enough fentanyl to kill 151 million.
Also seized were 51 tons of methamphetamine, 116 kilograms of xylazine, nitazenes—synthetic opioids up to 200 times more potent than morphine—as well as heroin, cocaine, ketamine, LSD and chemical precursors used to manufacture illegal pharmaceuticals.
The overall value of the illegally manufactured drugs amounted to a staggering $6.5 billion.
These giant raids and arrests reveal one disturbing thing: Illegal drugs are everywhere, in enormous and highly profitable quantities.
Drug smugglers were running transnational criminal networks, some bigger than large corporations, and profiting hugely from providing substances that turn the lives of addicts into a guided tour of hell.
In India, the operation destroyed a “darknet” drug syndicate called Ketamelon, run by Edison Babu, who authorities say launched more than 600 drug shipments in the past 14 months.
Major seizures also took place in South Korea, Myanmar and Laos, as well as in Indonesia, the United States and Mexico.
In Myanmar, police discovered two vehicles—one hiding 22 kilograms of heroin behind pineapples and the other carrying over 5 million “yaba” (meth) pills. The discoveries led to another house search that turned up a further 4 million pills.
In Mexico, police seized more than 190,000 fentanyl pills and 1.7 tons of methamphetamine.
Police also intercepted drugs hidden in everyday objects across multiple countries: In the Maldives, 3.86 kilos of ketamine concealed inside a surfboard shipped from the Netherlands; in Myanmar, heroin packed in powdered tea shipments; and in the Philippines, ketamine smuggled from Germany, Poland and France stuffed in coffee machines and cat food bags.
The Lionfish-Mayag III operation was funded by the Korean National Police Agency (mayag is the Korean word for “narcotics”), and involved authorities from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mexico, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
“The drugs trafficked by transnational criminal networks fuel violence, cripple economies and endanger public health,” Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said. “Each successful seizure highlights the power of law enforcement working together to protect lives and dismantle these threats. We will continue coordinating global efforts to support our member countries in safeguarding communities.”
This past year has seen other major anti-drug law enforcement coups. For example, the DEA seized 11.5 kilos of fentanyl in the largest bust in US history this past May. Attorney General Pam Bondi called it the “most significant victory in our nation’s fight against fentanyl.”
In Albuquerque, New Mexico; Salem, Oregon; Layton, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Phoenix, Arizona, the DEA seized over 400 kilos of fentanyl along with heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, arresting 16 drug peddlers.
In Detroit, the DEA seized 14 kilos of fentanyl, which, according to Andy Lawton of the Detroit DEA office, was enough to kill millions of people.
Meanwhile, the US Coast Guard seized 45,000 pounds of cocaine with a street value of over $500 million, according to top officials of the DOJ.
These are major achievements of law enforcement, showing cooperation on a magnificent level and striking a major blow to drug manufacturers around the entire world. Police in every nation involved deserve to be congratulated and praised for making such a serious dent in a gigantic worldwide drug manufacturing and smuggling empire.
It’s like trying to move the Sahara Desert by shoveling with a teaspoon.
But these giant raids and arrests reveal one disturbing thing: Illegal drugs are everywhere, in enormous and highly profitable quantities.
Which leads one to ask, in spite of the huge busts: “So what?”
What, really, was achieved? Face it: So far, the monsters are winning.
For every criminal drug lord arrested, another is anxiously waiting to take his place. For every illegal drug laboratory discovered and destroyed, others will be quickly built. For every phony pharmaceutical, counterfeit opioid and banned drug, there are more waiting in unsuspected warehouses, ready to be mixed, manufactured, packaged and smuggled to their destination.
The anti-drug operations themselves confirm that the worldwide drug cartel system is too large, too international, too wealthy, too deeply entrenched and too powerful for any attack against the supply side of the illegal drug trade to succeed.
It’s like trying to move the Sahara Desert by shoveling with a teaspoon.
As long as we keep focusing on attacking the pushers, the poisoners, the evil monsters who pollute the world with their filthy products and profit enormously from the voracious demand they have cultivated for their illegal drugs, it’s guaranteed that we will keep losing this war.
There are just too many of them.
And it is a war we simply cannot afford to lose, unless we are willing to live in a world of mindless, stumbling zombies—with city streets full of crippled, hopeless and homeless addicts wandering aimlessly, nowhere to go except wherever they can get their next “fix.”
As Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote: “The drug scene is planetwide and swimming in blood and human misery. Research demonstrates that the single most destructive element present in our current culture is drugs.”
Only by attacking and destroying the demand side of the illegal drug business will we be able, once and for all, to shut the toxic savages down.
If nobody’s buying, then nobody’s selling, and it’s game over for good.
Our best weapon in that endeavor is almost too simple to be believed: the truth.
The Truth About Drugs, a global education outreach program that teaches young people the unvarnished reality of the horrible damage drugs can do, has distributed over 170 million copies of its 15 educational booklets.
Sponsored by the Church of Scientology, the program also includes an award-winning 100-minute documentary and a series of high-impact public service announcements.
All told, the program has reached 1 billion souls with the straight facts.
Over 1,000 law enforcement and government groups have praised the program and use it regularly, as do thousands of schools.
Why? Because it works.
The Bible reads: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Yes, it can.
Let’s take back our world.
