Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, left, speaks during a Senate Committee on Intelligence Hearing on March 25, in Washington.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Fentanyl from Canada was not mentioned in a report released Tuesday outlining what the U.S. intelligence community considers the most serious foreign threats to the United States, despite President Donald Trump claiming that illicit drugs coming through the northern border are “an unusual and extraordinary threat.”
The Trump administration has linked its punishing tariffs on Canada to Ottawa’s inability to stop the flow of fentanyl, which it says has risen massively in recent years. However, previous reporting from The Globe has found that the White House is using misleading data about drug seizures and their links to Canada.
The Annual Threat Assessment states that Mexico-based crime organizations are the dominant producers and suppliers of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine. The report said that last year, the U.S.-Mexico border was the main entry point for illicit drugs, often concealed in passenger vehicles and tractor trailers.
The chemicals used to make fentanyl, and the equipment for producing it, were primarily sourced from China, followed by India, the report said. Mr. Trump has said the flow of fentanyl precursors are justification for his tariffs on China.
On March 4, Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), which allows the President to act without congressional approval in the event of a national emergency. Two days later, he gave a one-month reprieve on USMCA-compliant imports. Mr. Trump has declared fentanyl smuggling and illegal migration from Canada and Mexico as an emergency, and said the tariffs are intended to push both countries to address the issue.
A spokesperson for Canada’s Privy Council Office said the government was not made aware of the report and its contents prior to its release. “Although less than 0.1 per cent of fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities was at the Canada-U.S. border, the Government of Canada is continuing its work to go after the production, distribution, and trafficking of fentanyl,” said Stéphane Shank.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, presented the report’s findings during the scheduled Senate intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday.
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During the hearing, Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico pressed Ms. Gabbard about Canada’s omission from the report and said he was surprised the country was not mentioned given Mr. Trump’s rhetoric. Ms. Gabbard said the focus of the ATA is on the “most extreme threats,” and its assessment is that the most extreme threat is “from and through Mexico.”
When asked for comment on Tuesday, the White House referred the request to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which said it had nothing to share beyond what was in the report.
Citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the White House has previously asserted that 43 pounds of fentanyl was intercepted at the northern border last fiscal year, marking a “massive 2,050 per cent increase” compared with the year prior, when two pounds of the deadly synthetic drug was seized.
However, as Globe analysis of the border agency’s figures found, the dataset does not reveal the origin of the drugs and U.S. border agents confirmed that the methodology used for attributing seizures to the northern border doesn’t hinge on whether the fentanyl was intercepted at the border or whether it came from Canada. It could have been seized hundreds of kilometres inland, and it may have no ties to Canada whatsoever.
Ottawa has disputed the Trump administration’s claims, but has increased border security spending in recent months and named Kevin Brosseau as the country’s first fentanyl czar. Mr. Brousseau was the deputy national security and intelligence adviser to former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The 2025 report is the first time that foreign drug cartels are listed as the top threat to the United States, said Tom Cotton, the Senate intelligence committee chairman in the hearing. “Last year alone, these deadly drugs tragically killed more than 52,000 Americans, more than the number killed in attacks by foreign terrorists or foreign nations,” said Mr. Cotton, the Republican Senator from Arkansas.
In addition to the threat of illicit drugs from drug cartels, the report states that Russia, China, Iran and North Korea pose existential threats to the U.S. “by attacking or threatening others in their regions” and competing with the U.S. in trade, finance, and security.
While scheduled to discuss the ATA report, Tuesday’s Senate hearing was dominated by the fallout of a Signal group chat in which the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was inadvertently added and high-ranking officials discussed detailed plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen.
Ms. Gabbard and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, both denied that classified material had been shared in the chat during the hearing.