Pill press seizures in the United States

States in pink indicate that law enforcement has found a least one pill press making illicit pills. Click the red triangles for specific seizure incidents, January 2023 through mid-March 2025.

Illicit Pill Presses are Still a Threat

Read our April 2021 update. Or watch our two minute video summary.

When we released Illegal Pill Presses with NABP and NADDI in March 2019, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had characterized fentanyl pills as a growing market. And the DEA was prescient. Since then,

Mexican cartels have industrialized, importing precursor chemicals from China and India to make their own fentanyl in-house. (The DEA reports that cartels manufactured 71 percent of the counterfeit pills regional offices submitted for analysis in 2020.)
Pressed counterfeit pills made with fentanyl have been found in all 50 U.S. states, with associated deaths in 42 of them (as of October 2020).
Criminals have expanded their pill offerings to include novel benzodiazepines and methamphetamine, and to mimic Adderall, aspirin and even the diabetes drug metformin.
Legislative efforts to enhance penalties for pill press crimes have not gained traction.
Florida's 2018 statute to criminalize selling, buying or possessing a pill press to manufacture counterfeit controlled substances has largely not been taken up by prosecutors.

Law enforcement has seen some tremendous successes shutting down counterfeiting operations, but little legal or regulatory progress around pill presses has been made in the last two years. PSM urges federal action on this issue: The pill press as a vehicle for the distribution of dangerous drugs is not going away.

Federal resources about pill presses

DEA Pill Press Resources: Enforcement news, including slides from a briefing about Operation Pillstop, photos, and links to press releases about recent seizures and prosecutions.

Federal legislation to address pill press / tableting machines

Introduced in the 119th Congress

Stop The Opioid Pill Presser and Fentanyl Act (STOPP Act) (HR 1100)

The STOPP Act has been reintroduced in the 119th Congress by Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.). There have been no notable changes to bill text from the 118th version.

Summary: This bill aims to amend the Controlled Substances Act to regulate critical parts of tableting and encapsulating machines, which are used in the illicit production of counterfeit medicines and fake pills. It seeks to regulate components of tableting machines and enhance oversight of their manufacturing and distribution. It aims to address the opioid crisis by controlling the production of substances that can be used illicitly.

Specifically, it requires those who manufacture or distribute pill tableting or encapsulating machines and their critical parts to “serialize” their machinery, keep records of all relevant transactions, and report those transactions to the Attorney General by creating a national registry to track the movement of these pill tableting or encapsulating machines and their critical parts in the stream of commerce. Those who violate the serialization, record-keeping, reporting, or registry requirements will be subject to penalties.

Cosponsors:

Four cosponsors, all of whom are Democrats: