As New York City’s overdose deaths reach record-high levels, federal law enforcement is seizing more fentanyl than ever.

The city accounted for 10 percent of fentanyl seized in America, CBS reports. “This has been the biggest drug threat we have ever seen in the history of DEA,” a special agent, Frank Tarentino, said, as agents seized more than 4 million fake fentanyl pills and 500 kilograms of fentanyl powder — 37 million deadly doses. 

As authorities attempt to get a grip on the devastating amount of fentanyl plaguing cities, law enforcement officials are warning that a new drug danger is lurking in the shadows. 

A new type of synthetic opioids known as “nitazenes” is showing up in overdose deaths that has the potential to make the fentanyl crisis seem like “the good old days,” a doctor, Jeffrey Singer, and a chemist, Josh Bloom, warn.

In an opinion piece published by USA Today, they write that the nitazenes are “extremely potent” and that “unlike fentanyl derivatives, which have the same basic scaffold as fentanyl, nitazenes encompass a diverse set of compounds with a wide variety of chemical structures. This makes the number of potentially dangerous derivatives essentially limitless.”

America’s streets will become testing sites for cartels as they create distinct derivatives, they warn. 

Already, the nation’s fentanyl crisis has been linked to Chinese chemicals and Mexican cartels. “The Bronx has become ground zero for these cartels because of the strategic location that it is, up the I-95 corridor,” Mr. Tarentino told CBS News. 

The city’s overdose deaths spiked by 12 percent in 2022 compared to the year prior, with 3,026 recorded deaths, city data show, and “Black New Yorkers had the highest rate of overdose death.”

Fentanly was the most common illicit substance involved, showing up in 81 percent of overdose deaths. 

The numbers come as the city is home to two safe drug injection sites that drug experts have told the Sun enable the drug crisis by incentivizing cartels to bring more product to the area. 

“You can go into this location, pull out your narcotics, use them, and if you overdose, there’s an administrator there to give you Narcan, bring you back to life and send you on your way,” a retired DEA special agent, Michael Brown, said, and these sites increase “long-term generational drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness.”