dead from a fentanyl overdose. his mother, deena, found him in the basement. i can tell you miss him. >> i do, i do. i miss him every day, i have a hole in my heart. >> reporter: matthew, who strugemmed with depression, it taken a pill laced with fentanyl 100 times more potent than heroin. >> i saw matthew and quickly turned him over and i knew he was gone. >> reporter: nearly 75% of the drug-related deaths last year were attributed to illegal fentanyl. it's smuggled into the u.s., mainly from mexico, hidden in tires, trucks, even loads of frozen fish. in lor aido, texas, seizures at the border are up 1,500% this year. >> we're seeing them in very small packages, which makes it even more challenging for our workforce to interdict. >> reporter: the cartels lace drugs like cocaine and heroin with fentanyl, and use it to make fake pain pills that end up on american streets. the u.s. government seized 1.8