Facts are technically correct but framed in a way that likely leads to a wrong impression. Learn more in Methodology.
Border seizure and drug threat reports (DHS/CBP/USCG) and public health overdose data confirm a ~50% reduction in fentanyl trafficking compared with the cited prior period and associated declines in fentanyl purity and overdose deaths.
Available data partially support some elements of this statement but do not substantiate it as a whole or the claimed causal chain.
CBP seizure statistics (as summarized by USAFacts from official CBP data) show that between January and September 2025, about 7,517 pounds of fentanyl were seized at U.S. borders, roughly 55% less than in the same period of 2024, and DHS has publicly claimed a similar (~56%) drop at the southern border since Trump took office compared with 2024. However, seizures are an imperfect proxy for “trafficking”: lower seizure volumes can also reflect changes in enforcement tactics, smuggling methods, or reporting, and DHS has not provided transparent methodology to prove that total trafficking itself has been “slashed in half.”
DEA’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment and related summaries indicate some downward trends in fentanyl purity in recent years, particularly in counterfeit pills, but also emphasize increasing adulteration with other substances (like xylazine), making the drug supply more unpredictable rather than clearly safer; they do not identify reduced smuggling at the southern border as a proven driver of these purity changes. Meanwhile, CDC’s provisional data show a large national decline in drug overdose deaths in 2024 (roughly 24–27% vs. 2023) with further decreases into early 2025, but these reports attribute improvements to multiple public-health and market factors and do not credit border fentanyl trafficking reductions as a demonstrated primary cause.
Given that: (1) the “slashed in half” claim conflates seizures with total trafficking and is based on selective DHS framing; (2) the links between border fentanyl flows, purity, and overdose mortality are multifactorial and not causally demonstrated in the cited primary data; and (3) expert and official reports explicitly caution that seizure data underrepresent true trafficking volumes, this statement is best characterized as Misleading rather than fully true or fully false.
Verdict: Misleading, because it relies on a narrow, government-framed interpretation of seizure data as proof that overall trafficking at the southern border has been cut in half, and then overstates the evidence by portraying that as the established cause of lower fentanyl purity and fewer overdose deaths, which current DEA and CDC data do not substantiate causally.