The Rocky Mountain region saw record-breaking amounts of fentanyl pills and methamphetamines seized in 2025, officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said last week.

Throughout last year, Colorado saw a 76% increase in fentanyl pill seizures in comparison to the year before, which accounted for 6.7 million, or over 14%, of the 47 million pills seized by the DEA throughout the U.S., Special Agent in Charge David Olesky said.

“For the cartels to be trafficking this volume of fentanyl, they impact so many aspects of our public safety, crime in the region, that’s outside simply the scope of trafficking the drugs,” Olesky said. “We often see morning stories, we wake up to a carjacking or an auto theft ring, a shooting, and while not everything might be causation, there’s absolutely a correlation.”

The update comes after months of record-breaking seizure after record-breaking seizure in the region.

Agents with the Rocky Mountain Field Division — covering the states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana — seized over one million fentanyl pills during an October operation. Weeks later, they announced they had seized over 1,000 pounds of methamphetamines in a string of operations beginning in December 2024.

The main culprits for such trafficking in Colorado specifically are the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, Olesky said, which both move significant quantities of drugs, mainly fentanyl, through the Interstate 25 corridor.

Additionally, Olesky noted, other agents have reported that many of these substances are getting into the hands of people as young as middle school students.

“There are folks out there who are going to seek out the most vulnerable kids trying to appeal (to them with) something free,” Olesky said. “These drugs are so cheap that if they get a kid to get addicted to some of these drugs … if he’s got a customer for months or years to come, that’s exactly what they want.”

The agent added that the administration will be continuing with its comprehensive approach to addressing drug trafficking into the new year.