Kash Patel on Joe Rogan: FBI director reveals how India is helping America fight fentanyl crisis; take on China-backed trafficking network

FBI Director Kash Patel has claimed that the United States is working closely with Indian law enforcement agencies to dismantle what he describes as a China-backed global fentanyl trafficking network.

Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Patel alleged that while India is not a consumer of fentanyl, it has become an increasingly critical transit point for chemical precursors manufactured in China and passed on to Mexican drug cartels.“They’re going to places like India, and I’m also doing operations in India,” Patel said. “They’re having the Mexican cartels now make this fentanyl down in Mexico still.”Patel claimed that Chinese companies were “getting cute” by routing fentanyl precursors through third countries, including India, to evade direct enforcement and scrutiny.

‘No fentanyl deaths in India’

According to Patel, one of the clearest signs of a targeted campaign lies in where fentanyl deaths are and aren’t occurring. He said the drug is devastating the United States but has not created comparable crises in countries like India, Australia, or Canada.

“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,” he said.Patel suggested that the absence of deaths in those regions indicated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was selectively deploying the fentanyl supply chain toward the United States for strategic purposes.“The CCP have used it as a directed approach because we are their adversary,” Patel claimed. “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?”Read: How Kash Patel broke every Indian-American stereotype

Direct engagement with India

Patel said that he had personally reached out to Indian officials and that joint operations between the FBI and Indian law enforcement were now underway.

“I literally just got off the phone with the Indian government,” he said. “I said, I need your help. This stuff’s coming into your country and then they’re moving it from your country because India is not consuming fentanyl.”He stated that the FBI is working on the ground in India with “the heads of their government law enforcement authorities” to identify and shut down Indian companies involved in importing or redistributing Chinese fentanyl precursors.“We’re going to find these companies that buy it and we’re going to shut them down,” Patel said. Patel also laid out a strategy that includes international legal action. “We’re going to sanction them. We’re going to arrest them where we can. We’re going to indict them in America if we can. We’re going to indict them in India if we can.”

Patel's India Connection

Patel’s interest in Indian cooperation is not merely geopolitical — it’s personal. Born to Gujarati immigrant parents who fled East Africa, Patel grew up in a working-class immigrant household and has frequently spoken about the influence of his heritage on his national security outlook.

His rise from federal public defender to Trump-era White House official and now FBI Director has often been cast by conservative media as a story of Indian-American exceptionalism — one that defies traditional liberal narratives of the diaspora.

His critics, however, argue that he has used his identity to shield controversial moves inside the intelligence establishment.

Claims of CCP strategy and Canadian rerouting

Patel said that the fentanyl trafficking network has adapted in response to stricter enforcement at the US-Mexico border.

According to him, cartels are now using Canada as a northern entry point for distribution.“They’re flying it into Vancouver,” Patel said. “They’re 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 further alleged that China’s economic interest in the trade is minimal and that the real motive is geopolitical sabotage.“They’re not making a ton of money off it,” Patel said. “So it’s really just for that purpose.”

A broader appeal to Five Eyes allies

Patel stated that fentanyl precursors have been detected in Five Eyes countries — the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — even though the drug itself has not yet been widely deployed in those regions.“The fentanyl itself isn’t being deployed into your country, but it’s there being manufactured,” he said. “The CCP just hasn’t directed it at you yet, and they know that.”He said he has asked allied governments to help dismantle those production networks before they become operational threats.

A global drug crisis — or a targeted assault?

According to Patel, over 74,000 Americans died of synthetic opioid overdoses in 2023 alone, and the fentanyl epidemic should be viewed not only as a public health emergency but as a “tier one national security threat.”Patel argued that India’s cooperation is critical in confronting what he repeatedly characterised as a CCP-directed campaign to destabilise American society.“India is not the problem,” he said. “But if we don’t get ahead of it, it could become one.”While none of Patel’s claims have yet been independently confirmed by Indian or Chinese officials, his remarks suggest a new phase of international cooperation on drug enforcement — one that places India at the centre of a growing geopolitical storm.Note: Kash Patel's statements about India