A decade into America’s deadly fentanyl crisis, the supply chain fueling the narcotic’s production has grown into a ruthlessly efficient global trade, but one that was almost a complete black box. Reuters penetrated this clandestine industry to show how astonishingly cheap and easy it is for drug cartels to obtain fentanyl-making chemicals – by buying and testing the chemicals itself.

The resulting series, “Fentanyl Express,” exposes how and why the US government has failed to stem the flow of these chemicals. It also shows how Washington’s own trade policies turned the United States into a major transshipment hub for Chinese fentanyl chemicals bound for Mexico, stoking an overdose death toll approaching 450,000 American lives.

On Monday, Fentanyl Express was awarded a 2025 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. It was the first-ever win for Reuters in that Pulitzer category and a recognition of the tireless efforts of our journalists to shed light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. The series was reported by Maurice Tamman, Laura Gottesdiener, Stephen Eisenhammer, Drazen Jorgic, Daisy Chung, Kristina Cooke, Michael Martina, Antoni Slodkowski and Shannon Stapleton. It was edited by me and visual editor Feilding Cage.

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