MONEY, MARKETS, MURDER

An interview with DEA veteran,
David Tyree

How banks can follow the fentanyl trail and fight back

Intel/LEA/Defense

Fentanyl isn’t just another drug in America’s opioid crisis – it is the crisis. Cheap, deadly, and pouring across the U.S. border in unprecedented volumes, it has become the leading cause of accidental death for American adults under 55. It has redrawn the map of narcotics enforcement, forced Congressional debate, and reshaped how financial institutions must think about AML risk.

Behind every one of those statistics is a bank account, a shell company, or a wire transfer. Fentanyl money doesn’t stay in cash – it flows through the global financial system, disguised as legitimate business. And it’s the compliance officers, investigators, and financial-crime analysts who are increasingly on the front line of stopping it.

Fentanyl isn’t a street-corner problem. It’s an enterprise business. And if you follow the money, you’ll find the enterprise.

A conversation with David Tyree

To understand what that fight looks like from the ground, we spoke with David Tyree, a retired DEA agent who spent nearly three decades on the front line of America’s fight against drug cartels. Tyree has worked high-risk enforcement operations and dismantled money-laundering networks tied to cartel activity. His story reveals how organized crime uses financial systems – and what banks can do to disrupt them.

Q: What made you dedicate your career to fighting drug crime?

David Tyree: “There’s no single moment – it was the cumulative weight of many. In one case, we were investigating a group of professional financial-fraud practitioners who supported major drug cartels. We executed a search warrant and expected to find evidence of small-scale fraud. Instead, we discovered ledgers, cash, and money-laundering paperwork indicating hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars in illicit proceeds. It was overwhelming, and it changed the way I understood the scale of the problem.”

“Another case involved a fentanyl trafficking network we dismantled through a joint operation with local, state, and federal partners. The suspects were funding their operations by manipulating loans, cars, homes, and dumping worthless personal property to disguise the source of funds. We recovered kilograms of drugs, weapons, and stacks of cash – along with the paperwork showing how they were being laundered.”

Q: What’s the biggest misconception people have about fentanyl?

David Tyree: “That it’s a problem that only affects people who choose to use hard drugs. It’s not.

Fentanyl is often mixed into counterfeit pills – Xanax, Percocet, Adderall – or cocaine, so a person could think they’re taking one substance but ingest a lethal dose of fentanyl. That’s why the DEA created the ‘One Pill Can Kill’ campaign – because just one counterfeit pill can end a life. Cartels are marketing lookalike pills that appeal to young people, often mimicking legitimate prescription pills or even brightly colored ‘rainbow’ pills. The rise of these tactics is coupled with a heartbreaking increase in preventable deaths, particularly among teenagers who don’t realize what they’re taking. This underscores the urgency of prevention campaigns.³

Not only is fentanyl deadlier – it’s cheaper for the cartels to manufacture. Its potency is so extreme that just a few grains can be lethal. And because of its potency and portability, it has essentially replaced heroin in the U.S. drug supply.”

Q: How do the cartels actually move the money?

David Tyree: “Money laundering is the lifeblood of every cartel. They don’t just sell drugs – they build enterprises. Fentanyl money moves through a complex web of front companies, shell corporations, real estate, casinos, and cross-border trade.

We’ve seen everything from bulk cash smuggling across the border to intricate trade-based money laundering (TBML), where drug profits are hidden in the price of exports and imports. Sometimes it’s small deposits made by dozens of people – what we call smurfs⁴ – just under the reporting thresholds. Other times it’s high-value transactions disguised as legitimate business.

The financial system is essential to their operation. And that’s where banks have both the ability – and the responsibility – to disrupt them.”

Q: What do you wish banks understood about the cartels?

David Tyree: “That they’re already dealing with them – whether they know it or not.

Cartels aren’t hiding in the shadows anymore. They operate through networks of professional launderers, corrupt attorneys, brokers, and businesspeople who know how to make dirty money look clean. A single account might touch a dozen different money-laundering typologies without anyone realizing it.

What banks need to understand is that no institution is too small, and no compliance program is too advanced. Cartels adapt fast. They use the weakest links – the KYC gaps, the unmonitored channels, the alerts that are dismissed as false positives.

If your monitoring is only looking at transactions – not the relationships, patterns, or behaviors – you’re missing the picture.”

Q: How can banks and law enforcement work better together?

David Tyree: “It has to be a two-way street. Banks have data – transactions, patterns, relationships – that can reveal criminal networks in ways that law enforcement often can’t see. Agencies like the DEA have the operational intelligence about how those networks work. When those two data sets connect, we can dismantle entire organizations.

That’s what public-private partnerships are for. Programs like FinCEN Exchange, the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce in the U.K., and the U.S. Public-Private Analytic Exchange Program show what’s possible when we share intelligence in real time.

But partnership means trust – and trust means having tools that let both sides act quickly and safely.”

Q: What advice would you give to compliance officers who feel overwhelmed?

David Tyree: “You are on the front line of a global crisis. What you do matters.

Every SAR that leads to a case can save lives – literally. Every dollar you freeze can shut down a shipment of fentanyl. Every connection you uncover can help law enforcement close in on a network. This work is exhausting and often thankless, but it is essential.

My advice? Trust your instincts, invest in tools that help you see the connections others can’t, and never underestimate your role. You may not wear a badge or carry a weapon – but you are a fighter in this war.”

Q: What have you learned from being on the front line of the fentanyl crisis – and what did you learn about yourself as a leader in this fight?

David Tyree: “I learned that leadership on the front line isn’t about giving orders – it’s about being the person others can count on when everything is on the line. It’s showing up mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared, because your team depends on it, and lives depend on it.

In our office, we had two symbols that captured this responsibility:

1. The challenge coin⁵, printed with the names of every DEA agent lost on the job. Whenever things got tough, someone would put that coin on the table as a reminder of the cost – and the commitment – of this work. It reminded us who we were fighting for and who we owed our best effort to.

2. An old wall mirror that had been in the office for years. I hung on it a red sign that read: “You are looking at the person who is responsible for your safety.” That was for everyone – myself included. Because in this fight, no one else is coming to save you. You are the one who has to prepare, plan, and stay sharp – every single day.

I learned to live by the warrior’s mindset⁶ – not as a slogan, but as a way of life. It meant honesty, courage, taking care of your people, and never turning away from the mission – even when the mission is heavy.

And what I learned about myself is this: I could carry it. I could lead through fear, through fatigue, through loss – because I had a duty to the people beside me and to the innocent people we were sworn to protect.

The front line teaches you what really matters: your integrity, your team, and your ability to stay standing when others would fall.”

This isn’t about compliance metrics. It’s about people. Every alert you investigate, every transaction you flag, could stop the next 22-year-old kid from dying alone in a bathroom stall.

Quick action checklist

Here’s how AML professionals can turn insight into action:

• Assess whether your monitoring system can detect and analyze relationships, not just transactions.
• Integrate external and internal data – customer, transactional, and behavioral – into one contextual view.
• Prioritize high-risk typologies known to be exploited by cartel networks (TBML, smurfing, real estate flips).
• Foster partnerships with law-enforcement liaisons and industry information-sharing bodies (like FinCEN Exchange).
• Empower your team with training, tools, and the mission-focused mindset needed to fight this crisis on the financial front line.

How DataWalk AI is Transforming Investigative and Intelligence Analytics

Download the eBook

Endnotes

1. DEA “One Pill Can Kill” campaign
2. “How the Fentanyl Crisis Affects Latin America” – Center for American Progress
3. DEA “One Pill Can Kill” campaign
4. “Common AML Typologies” – Hitachi Solutions blog on smurfing and structuring
5. DEA Fallen Heroes tribute – challenge coin commemoration
6. The Warrior Mindset – Christensen & Grossman (Warrior Science Publications)