New Delhi: India has been identified as a “state actor” alongside China and both countries are “directly and indirectly” enabling transnational groups to supply precursors and drug traffickers, according to an annual threat assessment report by US intelligence agencies released on Tuesday (March 25).
The 2025 report, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, comes two months after Donald Trump began his second presidential term.
It was also released under Tulsi Gabbard, who visited India last week in the first official trip by a Trump administration official.
The report’s foreword states: “Nonstate groups are often enabled, both directly and indirectly, by state actors, such as China and India, as sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers”.
This is the first time India has been placed on the same level as China in the supply of precursor chemicals used by drug cartels to manufacture the opioid fentanyl.
Last year’s threat assessment report had only mentioned India as one of several countries that Mexican groups were sourcing from to a “lesser extent”, with China identified as the primary supplier.
The phrasing is particularly significant, not just for grouping China and India together but for categorising them as “state actors” – a term that implies government complicity, whether deliberate or inadvertent.
The reference is notable, as Trump has made combating opioids a political priority, shaping his foreign policy decisions.
On February 1, he imposed an additional 10% tariff on China for failing to take sufficient action against fentanyl trafficking and a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico for allegedly lacking adequate border enforcement.
India is already in talks with the US to expedite a free trade deal that could help it avoid some of the reciprocal import tariffs announced by Trump, set to take effect on April 2.
The report further states, “China remains the primary source country for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill-pressing equipment, followed by India. Mexico-based chemical brokers circumvent international controls through mislabelled shipments and the purchase of unregulated dual-use chemicals.”
According to the report, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids “remain the most lethal drugs trafficked into the United States, causing more than 52,000 US deaths in a 12-month period ending in October 2024”.
The DEA’s 2024 Drug Threat Assessment had previously noted that India was “emerging as a major source country” for precursor chemicals used in synthetic drugs.
In January, an US indictment charged two Indian chemical companies with supplying chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl in the US and Mexico.
Three months later, top officials of another Indian firm were arrested in the US for attempting to sell fentanyl precursor agents.
