With love with China: Kash Patel who tells Rogen how Fantenal America’s opium war became world news
Even Elon Musk and Donald Trump publicly quarreled on social media, the newly appointed FBI Director Kash Patel appeared for his first long -time interview who appeared on Rosen Podcast. Negotiations, over two hours long, in familiar region, government’s laxity, national security, and internet conspiracy – but the most striking element claimed that the United States was not facing public health crisis only from Fantenal. This, in his words, “Chemical War.”Patel, a former National Security Officer and the first Indian-American to lead the FBI under Trump, not as a policing issue, but as a coordinated attack on a global, American infrastructure-social, generated and institutional. With more than 100,000 overdose deaths in 2024, and Fantenl is now a major cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 to 45, Patel argued that it is no longer about drug addiction. He said, “You do not hear about Phantenile deaths in China, India or England,” he told Rogan. “This is not an accident.”Their central claim is: chemicals used to make fentaneel are manufactured in China, which smuggle through third party countries including India and Canada, and gather by Mexican Cartel. Final product – often disguised as prescription pills or even candy – enters the US through its boundaries and postal systems. Patel called it a “Tier-One National Security”, it was placed on a par with terrorism or nuclear proliferation.
A structural rot in FBI
Patel took over in February 2025 after being nominated by President Trump in his second term. One of his first internal discoveries was that about one third of the 35,000 FBI employees – more than 11,000 – were posted in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. “Crime does not focus on DC,” he told Rogan. “Our people were not there because they needed to be operationally, but because promotion needed proximity to the headquarters.,Within its first 100 days, Patel took over 1,500 agents from Washington to field offices in offices across the country. In his view, violent crime, fennel distribution, and cartel activity require a different type of organizational currency – more agents are embedded in areas and low in administrative groups.Bureau, he said, had become accustomed to paper-pushing, inter-agency briefing and national press strategy. This, in his words, “a bureaucracy who was the service itself.” He did not blame rank-end-filing agents. His criticism was aimed at leadership and structural incentives, which encouraged ambition on influence.
The Chemical Trail: from China to Mexico
The Phantenile story laid by Patel begins in China. While China has publicly banned the export of Fentaneel, Patel argues that Chinese chemical firms have focused on the export of forever chemicals instead – the uses used to synthesize the fentenyl. They are often sent under the guise of legitimate medicine or industrial use. China, they say, understand how to take advantage of technical and regulator blind places.Mexican cartel then uses these materials for the manufacture of illegal phentinyls, which are pressed into fake pills – often mimic the drugs such as oxicodone – or are mixed in other drugs. These pills are sometimes manufactured in colors and shapes similar to candy, especially they become dangerous for young users.Patel did not see the words: “This is not accidental poisoning. It is a strategic lethargy.” He alleged that while the Chinese state cannot formally direct these exports, its regulatory failures and apathy complicates it in the long -term decline of American society.
Role of India: A transit point and a partner
One of the most underported revelations from the interview was Patel to mention India. According to him, the forearm exported by China is not always rooted directly into Mexico. Rapidly, they are sent through large chemical manufacturing sectors and countries with low stringent inspection protocols. India, especially due to its large drug and chemical export industry, has become a frequent transit point.However, Patel clarified that India is not a source of problem – this is becoming part of the solution. “I just switched off the phone with the Government of India,” he said. “My FBI is working with heads of its law enforcement officers.”The statement is important. The United States has previously worked with Indian intelligence on anti-terrorism and cyber crime, but cooperation on chemical contradiction is a relatively new domain. Patel said that joint operations have already resulted in the identity and blacklisting of several shell companies working as front institutions to recreate Chinese pioneers in Latin America.This new alignment appears to be more than transactions. Patel, who is of Gujarati origin, has cultivated strong working relations with Indian security officials. He describes India as a “Firewall”, which is capable of preventing the passage of Phantenile material before reaching the North American network.Northern Route: Canada’s cool vulnerabilityWhile most of the US interaction on drug trafficking is focused on the southern border, Patel said Cartel has changed the strategy. With increased enforcement on the US-Maxico border, Phantenl is rapidly being sent to Canada-especially Vancouver-where it is processed and then transported to the US through comparatively porous northern crossings.This Canadian route has largely swept under the radar, but Patel suggests that it is now one of the primary distribution channels. Shift represents a classic adaptation: Cartel reacts rapidly to policy changes compared to bureaucrats that they exploit.Patel was not directly important to Canada, but his message was contained. “They are getting cute,” they said of smugglers. “They know where the weaknesses are.”
Biden administration priorities
One of Patel’s fastest criticism was directed in Biden administration. On assuming office, the Defense Department got an opportunity to continue a national security strategy under Trump, which included a plan to address the Phantanel crisis.Patel claims that the upcoming administration ignored the plan.“The first concept of operations issued under Biden was not for drugs. It was for climate change,” he said.For Patel, it was not just a bureaucracy oversight – it was a political decision. “They did not want to use Trump’s plan because it was Trump,” he said. As a result, they argue, there has been a loss of institutional continuity in facing an immediate national threat.
Internal Recking: Russia’s legacy
Beyond Fentanyl, Patel also discussed his efforts to improve the FBI internally. Patel, who was involved in the investigation into the origin of the Russia investigation as an investigator of a former Congress, believes that the leadership of the bureau was compromised. He alleged that senior officials buried evidence, crossed legal limits, and used classified equipment for political purposes.He revealed that he had discovered the “vault” of seal documents related to Russia’s investigation within the FBI headquarters. As Director, he has started releasing these materials in the monitoring committees of the Congress. He also claims that, during his time as an investigator, his personal data was secretly stopped from informing the phone company, under a seal order by the Department of Justice.Although the legal implications of these claims are still not clear, they underline Patel’s big story: the federal government, as is currently structured, is not equipped to fight the war, it is already.
A different type of Indian-American officer
Patel’s climb is not just bureaucracy; It is cultural. Indian-Americans in public life have commonly moved to technology, medicine, or policy advisory roles. Some have adopted the path of aggressive national security enforcement. Less still spoke clearly as Patel.Their policy meditation is not on representation or identity. It is on the system, danger network and sovereign flexibility. He rejects both technical growth and rhetoric activism.And in his first major public presence, he does not use the country’s most downloaded podcasts to discuss himself, but underlines that he looks as a clear and current danger.
A chemical map of power
If Patel is correct, the Phantanile crisis is not just a matter of demand for over-permission or opioid. It is part of a global supply chain with obvious geo -political implications. The pipeline runs from chemical laboratories in Wuhan, through manufacturing corridors in Gujarat, Cartel Labs in Mexico and British Columbia, and ends in American schools, suburbs and marks.This map is Kash Patel – not as the principle, but is already running in the form of evidence, testimony and operation.Can Washington follow it, it is a different question. Whether it is a difficult.
