The fentanyl-from-cocaine claim is the justification John Kiriakou says the Trump administration offered for the boat strikes in the Caribbean, and which he checked live on air in October 2025.
The claim
As Kiriakou states it, the administration was asking the public “to believe something that we know isn’t true and can’t be true. They say that 70% of overdoses in the United States are directly attributable to fentanyl that is processed from cocaine that originates in Venezuela.” His answer: “that’s just not how it works… That’s just simply not true.” He attributes its survival to ignorance rather than persuasion — “they’re counting on people not really knowing about this.”[1][2]
The fact sheet
Rather than leave it as an assertion, he pulled the source up while the conversation continued. “I’m looking at the DEA’s fact sheet on fentanyl right here, and fentanyl is not made from cocaine.”[3]
The relationship between the two drugs runs the other way: fentanyl “is mixed with cocaine and with every other drug that’s out there. Cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine — it’s mixed with everything.” It can also be put into a nasal spray.[3]
The figure he read out concerned pills rather than powder: “42% of all pills tested for fentanyl contained at least 2mg of fentanyl, which is considered to be a lethal dose.”[3][4]
What the adulteration is not
Both hosts rejected the idea that the mixing serves consumer demand, reaching back to the spiking of drugs with PCP in the 1980s. In Kiriakou’s exchange with the host the conclusion is that this is a failure of the market rather than a feature of it — “drug users want to know what they’re getting… just like any other consumers.”[4][5]
Kiriakou closed the subject with a death in his own family. His brother-in-law died of a fentanyl overdose at 36: “he didn’t mean to. He thought he was just going to smoke some meth like he smoked every day, and 15 minutes later he was dead.” His verdict: “I hate drugs.”[5][6]