Joint Task Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics Act of 2025

This bill creates a single, high-level team inside the federal government to fight illicit synthetic narcotics. The new Joint Task Force will pull together experts from justice, treasury, homeland security, state, commerce, defense, and the intelligence community to share information, plan operations, and go after drug trafficking networks more effectively . It is led by a Director who reports to the Attorney General and must give Congress updates every 6 months on goals, budgets, actions taken (like raids and seizures), and efforts tied to the role of the People’s Republic of China in the opioid crisis .

The task force’s main job is to coordinate and direct actions against opioid and synthetic drug trafficking, including joint operations with federal, state, Tribal, territorial, and local law enforcement. It can investigate and prosecute trafficking, money laundering, and smuggling tied to these drugs, improve information sharing among agencies, and run operations to break up networks. It is not allowed to target people for personal drug use or small-scale dealing that isn’t tied to larger trafficking groups. Member agencies keep their existing powers, and the task force adds centralized planning, intelligence analysis, and coordination to make the response faster and stronger .

Key points

• Who is affected: Federal, state, Tribal, territorial, and local law enforcement; communities harmed by synthetic drug trafficking; offenders involved in larger trafficking networks .
• What changes: A new joint task force coordinates investigations, intelligence, planning, and operations across many agencies; regular reports to Congress; focus includes addressing actions linked to the People’s Republic of China. It cannot target personal drug use or low-level dealing without ties to big networks .
• When: The Director must submit the first report within 180 days of the law taking effect, then every 180 days after that .