Welcome to a bonus episode of Heritage Explains. We're looking forward to bringing you a new series starting on June 7th, but in the next few weeks, we want to keep delivering you the best content to keep you informed about the important issues facing our country.

In keeping with the series we just finished,

six episodes on the threat of the Chinese Communist Party, we are bringing you some bonus episodes,

focusing on parts of the China story that we may have only covered tangentially or we want to

spend more time on. First up, an episode on the quiet killer that has taken the lives of

thousands of Americans per year for the last

several years, fentanyl. Since 2014, we've seen continuous disturbing growth in the number of deaths

due to overdose from synthetic opioids, most of those deaths from fentanyl. For this bonus episode,

we're pulling in a conversation with the Daily Signal podcast, which originally

aired in January of this year, between our reporter Samantha Escheris and Derek Maltz, a veteran

of the Drug Enforcement Administration and expert on fentanyl. As always, thanks for listening to Heritage

Explains. If you've got any feedback, send it our way at heritage explains at heritage.org,

and we hope

you enjoy this sobering but important conversation with Derek Maltz.

Derek, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Now in the last year or so, we've seen headlines nearly every day about the fentanyl crisis plaguing our country.

As I mentioned, you worked for the drug enforcement agency for nearly 30 years. And before we talk

about the fentanyl crisis, can you tell us about your work with the DEA and what operations

you were a part of or oversaw? So I was an agent in the DEA for 28 years.

I worked most of my career in New York as a field agent, but when I went to Washington,

I worked at the Special Operations Division, which is a synchronation center, helps to coordinate

...