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Chemicals used to make fentanyl are pouring into the Port of Vancouver on their way to drug labs run by Mexican cartels on Canadian soil, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency told senators in Washington, DC, on Tuesday
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said U.S. law enforcement is “very aware” that fentanyl is being manufactured in Canada for cross-border export and that there have been “significant seizures” of the drug in Canada over the past two months.
Cole made the comments during a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the annual budget requests of the DEA, FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.
When asked by Republican Senator Deb Fischer what changes he had seen in the drug trade, Cole spoke briefly about the fentanyl trade from Mexico and then quickly turned to Canada.
“We need to make sure we’re keeping an eye on the northern border as well. We’re seeing more precursors coming into the Port of Vancouver and into Canada,” Cole said.
Canadian drug traffickers then transport the precursors – the chemical ingredients of illegal drugs – to sites across the country for manufacturing and have begun producing fentanyl in Canada “along with the Mexican cartels,” Cole said.
Terrance Cole, the administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, pictured in the Oval Office on September 15, 2025. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)
“And then it comes across our northern border. It’s something that everyone at this table is worried about,” he said, sitting alongside the directors of the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The fentanyl trade from Canada has been a major irritant for US President Donald Trump since his return to the White House last year.
That was the catalyst for the first set of tariffs Trump imposed on Canadian goods, despite evidence that only a fraction of fentanyl entering the U.S. comes from Canada and Ottawa promising to crack down on cross-border trade.
DEA opens two new offices in Canada
The DEA currently has two offices in Canada – at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa and the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver – and Cole said the agency aims to open two more in 2027.
“From the DEA perspective, we are keeping an eye on Canada,” he said at the Senate committee hearing.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, U.S. officials seized 77 pounds (35 kilograms) of fentanyl along the northern border in fiscal year 2025, compared to 11,500 pounds (5,215 kilograms) at the border with Mexico.
VIEW | Cartels are making fentanyl in Canada, says Cole:
US DEA chief says agency is ‘very aware’ of Canada border.
During a Senate Budget Committee hearing in Washington on Tuesday, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency made some allegations about fentanyl trafficking from Canada.
The latest statistics suggest that the vast disparity in seizures only appears to be growing. In the first six months of fiscal year 2026, which began in October, U.S. Border Patrol agents seized just six pounds (2.7 kilograms) of fentanyl along the Canadian border and nearly 1,000 times that much (5,800 pounds, or 2,630 kilograms) at the border with Mexico.
Arpen Rana, senior communications adviser for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, responded to Cole’s comments by saying the authority is working with local police forces, the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and terminal operators to ensure safe trade through the port.
“While we do not operate any of the container terminals at the port, we regularly coordinate security efforts with multiple law enforcement and regulatory agencies,” Rana said in an email to CBC News.
“We have also partnered with CBSA for state-of-the-art container inspection facilities to support national security.”
A CBSA spokesman pointed to the federal government’s commitment to hire an additional 1,000 border guards.
“Canada is not a significant source of fentanyl, either to the United States or abroad,” said Guillaume Bérubé, media relations manager for the CBSA, in an email to CBC News.
“Canada’s border is strong and we are making it stronger.”
After Trump’s initial complaints about cross-border fentanyl trafficking, Canada’s federal government launched a $1.3 billion border security plan – including increased law enforcement patrols – and appointed a fentanyl czar.
None of that stopped Trump from slapping tariffs on Canada last year based on his declaration that the flow of drugs across the northern border constituted a national emergency.
The 35 percent tariff applied to all Canadian goods that did not meet the rules of origin of the Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement – until the US Supreme Court overturned the tariff regulation in February, the ruling Trump had exceeded his powers as president.