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Mexican drug cartels are rapidly expanding production of fentanyl, pushing the deadly drug into the United States and making big profits from an easily produced and highly addictive substance.
Utam Dillon, the former Acting Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said, “What we saw was unique, even if only one laboratory in Mexico was compressing pills. And this was just a few years ago.
“For example, we’re seeing literally a million pills seized in Los Angeles just a few months ago, so the increase is huge.”
The Sinaloa Cartel and its rival Jalisco Carte are responsible for much of the production and smuggling of fentanyl into the United States, according to former officials and analysts.
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In 2019, the United States successfully pushed the Chinese government to put fentanyl under a stronger regulatory regime. This has cut fentanyl shipments from China to North America and opened an opportunity for Mexican cartels to manufacture fentanyl themselves.
“Mexican cartels run global corporations. They now run like Fortune 500 companies,” former DEA special agent Derek Maltz told Fox News’ America’s Newsroom. . “They have implemented strategic and deceptive marketing schemes to promote addiction and generate profits.”
“All they need is a precursor chemical,” Dhillon said. “Once they have those chemicals, they can manufacture them on an industrial scale.”
The DEA warns that “Rainbow Fentanyl” is a “deliberate effort by drug traffickers to promote youth addiction.”
Unlike cocaine and heroin, fentanyl is manufactured synthetically using chemicals produced primarily in China, not field-grown crops. The drug is so potent in small quantities that smugglers can supply the U.S. market in much smaller shipments.
“If production costs are in the hundreds of dollars, sales in the U.S. can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more depending on how you cut it,” said Dr. Banda Felbab Brown, director of the Non-State Armed Forces Initiative. said. at the Brookings Institution.
“It’s also more profitable because there are more means of smuggling and transportation, and it’s easier to evade law enforcement.”
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is said to lead the Sinaloa Cartel. The US government is offering up to $15 million for his arrest and $10 million for Nemesio “El Mencho” Cervantes, alleged Jalisco boss.
“The individual leaders of these cartels are ruthless, greedy and sophisticated. These cartels receive billions of dollars a year from which their leaders profit every day,” Dillon said. “They’re very adept at avoiding US prosecution, they’re accommodating, they’re avoiding Mexican law enforcement.”
In 2016, the U.S. government, in partnership with its Mexican counterpart, successfully arrested Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, former head of the Sinaloa Cartel. changed significantly.
Mexican President Lopez Obrador seeks calm amid cartel violence.US government employees ordered to shelter in place
“Mexico’s current administration of President Andrés Lopez Obrador has completely watered down cooperation,” Ferbab-Brown said.
“Mexico’s decision to no longer work effectively with the DEA is definitely frustrating,” Dhillon added. We have been working together – it is important to aggressively attack the cartels in Mexico.”
President Lopez Obrador has adopted a “hugs, not bullets” policy when dealing with cartels, arguing that fighting criminal groups will only create more violence.
The DEA declined to comment for this story.
“CBP is making unprecedented investments in border surveillance systems, introducing new non-intrusive inspection technologies to the POE, and leveraging enhanced intelligence analysis and information sharing with other federal agencies and foreign partners. ‘, a Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said in a statement released to Fox News.
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A record 107,000 Americans will die from drug overdoses in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over 70,000 of these victims were murdered by synthetic opioids like fentanyl.