CHICAGO () — As crowds prepare to pour into Grant Park for Lollapalooza this weekend, Chicago officials are urging festivalgoers and parents to be on alert over a growing methamphetamine threat in the area, including fake pills being passed off as familiar club and party drugs.
The Chicago Field Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration told the I-Team that meth seizures have climbed sharply in 2024. Federal agents said they have already confiscated more methamphetamine in the first six months of this year than they recovered in all of last year.
The concern is especially high because, according to the DEA, some of the meth is being pressed into tablets and falsely sold as ecstasy, MDMA or molly, drugs often associated with concerts and nightlife.
Inside the DEA’s Chicago drug laboratory, the I-Team observed where forensic chemists test seized powders, capsules and pills collected during narcotics investigations.
Agency officials said some tablets designed with eye-catching cartoon-style stamps and promoted as party drugs were later found in lab testing to contain methamphetamine.
“The foreign terrorist organizations Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG Cartel are really producing a lot of methamphetamine, and last year it was nearly pure methamphetamine,” said Todd Smith, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Chicago Field Office.
Smith said agents in the Chicago Field Office have seized more than 3,038 pounds of methamphetamine since the start of the year, equal to roughly 1.5 tons. DEA figures show that amount is already higher than the total seized in all of last year and the year before.
“You know, a decade ago, the Chicago area did not see a lot of methamphetamine. That’s changed. There is a lot of methamphetamine available, and unfortunately, is being put into these counterfeit pills,” Smith said.
Smith explained Mexican cartels are receiving precursor chemicals from China and India and increasing methamphetamine production as efforts to reduce fentanyl have progressed.
“We have seen the lethality of the fentanyl pills come down, but we’ve also seen a shift to powders. We’ve seen more fentanyl powder and more methamphetamine powder and crystal coming to the United States,” Smith said.
The DEA also pointed to pill-making operations, including one uncovered earlier this year in Indiana, where powders can be pressed into counterfeit pills.
Asked about conditions in such operations, Smith said: “The conditions are awful. We walk into these counterfeit labs, and they’re an absolute mess. There’s powder everywhere, unsanitary conditions.”
The agency said the concern is heightened during the summer festival season because methamphetamine can increase body temperature, impair the brain’s ability to regulate heat and make it more difficult for the heart to compensate during extreme heat.
“Because you have that fight-or-flight response there’s also going to be some sweating that’s induced and dehydration,” said JasLynn Murphy, a senior forensic chemist with the DEA Chicago Field Office.
The DEA is urging parents to discuss the dangers of counterfeit pills with their children before major festivals and as students prepare to return to school, officials said.
