Fentanyl: Fighting the Mass Poisoning of America and the Cartel Behind It

by Jake Braun

Fentanyl is a first-person, insider account of how the crisis consumed the Biden Administration amid a series of other national security emergencies. It follows Jake Braun, a senior White House official, and his colleagues while they scramble to respond to the epidemic. As Mexican cartels ruthlessly executed their most radical transformation in 50 years, Braun and his colleagues architected the first U.S. government wide strategy to combat fentanyl in history.

The effort brought him to Mexico to meet with Mexican agents who kick down cartel doors for the U.S. government there. He also spent time with data analytics wizards buried in nondescript offices in Virginia suburbs that hunt down Chinese fentanyl precursor chemicals on the Dark Web. He even takes a detour to gather intelligence from Russian migrants in U.S. detention facilities that migrated through cartel-controlled areas of Mexico. In the process, Braun uncovered the remarkable transformation cartels in Mexico underwent over the last 50 years. They morphed from narco-empires the size of Fortune 50 companies specializing in marijuana and cocaine to ones specializing in human migration and, separately, fentanyl.

After much painstaking effort, the Biden Administration successfully executed the most sweeping takedown of cartel leadership and fentanyl infrastructure since the crisis began. Due to the efforts of heroic agents, intelligence officers and national security experts, the leviathan U.S. government is now marshaled in ways never before imagined against the Chinese chemical companies and cartels propagating the fentanyl epidemic. Further, the strategy seems to be working. Just a year after it was kicked off, the fentanyl fatalities dropped nearly 37%. Yet the crisis persists. Finally, Braun draws on his unique experience combating the epidemic to outline how the U.S. government can once and for all end the fentanyl crisis in America.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 30, 2025

Reviews

[Debumere]

The fentanyl epidemic in the States is dire and I was interested to read more into how it started, what the scale of damage is, action plans, long-term effects. This book is written by someone who was a senior official in the White House during the Biden Administration, he claims he worked at both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. Braun goes on to explain his role and the problems he faced - juggling multiple major incidents at once etc and then onto cartels and the fentanyl crisis.

But... this book is written as if the target audience were macho, macho men. I was rather surprised at the style of the writing, it felt like a long brag and the heavy use of a thesaurus. Here are a few examples;

'This typical "Kingpin" strategy wouldn't work. This was not the old "Chicago Outfit" that could be imperilled by confining Al Capone behind bars.'

'When I heard about the assassination, I initially thought, 'Huh, well, the weekend plans of the Caribbean desk folks at the National Security Council and State Department just went out the window. They are going to be stuck in windowless classified offices all weekend'

'I paced around the T-shaped corridors of St Elizabeth's squawking into one phone while dialling someone else on another.'

The phone calls ' Basically...' 'Ugh. Ok..'

I was also concerned at the apparent inadequacy of US vetting systems, claiming he (author) managed to find a programmer 'buried in some arcane office no-one has ever heard of at DHS, the Office of Biometrics and Identity Management' '...to duct tape and bubble-gum the systems together.'

All of the above occurred in the first few pages.

This was incredibly off-putting when I was expecting to read a concise and professional piece of literature . The author, who says this book is a first-hand account, doesn't sound credible. There were parts where it read well and then not. It felt as though different people were writing different parts.

Honestly, criticism aside, this book has potential but it needs a complete re-write and maybe an attempt at making the USA sound a little more 'put-together' rather than a bunch of clueless people running around random security departments.

Disappointing.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Academic for this ARC.

[Sharon]

Necessary reading. Braun treats fentanyl as a public health disaster and a national security challenge at the same time, which helped me understand why solutions are so elusive. The insider perspective adds depth and urgency without feeling self-serving. Highly recommended for anyone interested in current events or public policy.

[Reader]

The clarity of this book is its greatest strength. Braun breaks down how fentanyl moves from overseas labs to American streets in a way that finally makes sense. I appreciated how the book avoids political grandstanding and instead focuses on facts, systems, and consequences. I highly recommend it.