Mexican cartels have turned to fentanyl

Mexican cartels have turned to fentanyl

A white pillared mansion in the hills of the opulent Lomas neighborhood of Mexico City, close to an embassy and UN facilities, was the scene of the largest drug cash bust in history. Federal officials from Mexico found a pile of $205 million in bills, along with pesos, Euros, and Hong Kong dollars, after they burst through the property's decorative gates in 2007. But it wasn't the property of one of the scarred and vicious drug lords from the mountains of Mexico; rather, it belonged to the well-dressed Chinese-born businessman Zhenli Ye Gon.

According to US and Mexican prosecutors, Ye Gon was making a fortune by smuggling crystal meth into the US from Mexico and selling Mexican gangsters the flu medication pseudoephedrine that he had purchased from Chinese laboratories. Ye Gon, a devotee of high-stakes poker, was on his way to Las Vegas when he lost $125 million playing cards (a casino was eventually required to turn over most of this money to the US government) and purchased a $1 million mansion for a casino hostess. Ye Gon was finally returned to Mexico after a protracted court struggle, where he is currently being held on allegations related to drugs, organized crime, money laundering, and weapons.

Ye Gon seemed to be a short-lived novelty at the time I was reporting on the story. Compared to the cocaine and heroin trade I was looking into, where you could go to the mountains and see the peasant farmers pick coca leaves and opium poppies, importing chemicals from China is a long cry from the latter. However, it is now clear that Ye Gon was a trailblazer and that Mexican gangs have followed his example to completely transform their sector, with dangerous repercussions for Americans.

Since that historic bust, Mexican drug traffickers have steadily switched the focus of their operations from drugs derived from plants to drugs synthesized with synthetic chemicals. These include fentanyl produced illegally, meth, and other substances like ketamine. Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate many times more potent than heroin, is cheaper to make and more deadly. Following Ye Gon's example, cartels formed an unholy alliance with unscrupulous figures in the Asian chemical industry in order to produce these synthetics.

The balance began to tip until US border officials caught more crystal meth than cocaine in 2018 (both narcotics are regarded as "uppers" and party drugs), and in 2021, they also seized more fentanyl than heroin (both drugs are regarded as "downers"). With US officials seizing 14,000 pounds of fentanyl, which was seven times the quantity of heroin, and 175,000 pounds of meth, which was two and a half times the amount of cocaine in 2022, the trend has escalated.

Prior to 2012, when recreational marijuana use became legal in some US states, border seizures of marijuana from Mexico were a significant source of income for traffickers. Colombia, which is located further south, continues to produce a huge amount of cocaine, much of which is now flowing to the lucrative European market. In the meantime, synthetics account for the majority of shipments to and revenues from the United States. The logistics of the drug trade in Mexico have changed as a result of this paradigm shift.

Drug trafficking has historically relied on poppies and coca leaf plantations, which are susceptible to aerial agricultural spraying. These days, the pharmaceutical sector and the supply lines of cargo ships are the two globalization behemoths involved in the mass manufacture of synthetic pharmaceuticals. Cities on the Pacific, including Manzanillo, Mexico's largest container port, have become violent trafficking hotspots. Anywhere, from peaceful Mexican suburbia to the actual border, can have a pill mill.

The cartel's switch to synthetic drugs is strongly related to the sharp increase in drug-related fatalities in the US. About 27,000 Americans died from overdoses back in 2007. The amount increased fourfold to 107,000 deaths by 2021. 71,000 were fentanyl- or other synthetic opioid-related. Meth was among the second-highest category of "psychostimulants," at 32,000. Additionally, drug traffickers are adding fentanyl to cocaine and heroin, which together are killing more people. Overdose deaths have increased significantly over the past five years, coinciding with an increase in fentanyl border busts.

But human suffering comes before statistics. Some of the victims are youngsters, but most are adults in the prime of their life. The loss is felt by millions of parents, siblings, kids, and friends.

The overdose pandemic in the US is caused by a number of factors. As courts continue to hear, pharmaceutical oligopolies distributed an excessive amount of legal narcotics that fueled addiction. Workers in the Rust Belt were demoralised by the closure of their workplaces, and the epidemic and lockdown had a negative impact on their mental health. However, it is difficult to deny that the changing availability of illegal narcotics, from cocaine and heroin to synthetic meth and fentanyl, is a significant contributor to the rising death toll.

The overdose crisis is entangled in political politics, as is the case with everything in American society. Republicans have pushed the White House to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction and the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations in an effort to take a tough stance. Republican candidates linked opioid deaths to illegal immigration in their attack advertising for the midterm elections. Democrats, on the other hand, have made the strongest arguments in favor of "harm reduction" programmes, particularly in deep-blue places like San Francisco. But both Republicans and moderate Democrats have criticized the area's degree of open drug addiction.

After spending two decades documenting the human tragedy of narco violence here in Mexico, I have conflicting emotions on the most recent political controversy. I've always been an opponent of the War on Drugs since it has failed to halt the drug trade while fostering a substantial underground market for murderous cartels. I rejoiced when marijuana use became legal in some US states because I believed that drug cartels and related bloodshed may eventually fade away.

By Paul Smith