Sinaloa Cartel’s deadly twist: why it is switching from cocaine and heroin to fentanyl

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Sinaloa Cartel built a veritable cocaine empire that resulted, according to the DEA, in the shipment of over 1 million kilos to the United States.

However, over the years, client demand changed, as users were no longer satisfied with the drugs popular in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and now demanded much more powerful drugs that ultimately renewed catalogs, while also making them more dangerous due to their lack of scientific documentation.

The Mexican cartels, faithful to the concept of ‘giving the client what he asks for’, changed their structure in favor of these new drugs that claim an average of 64 overdose deaths per day in the USA. This was evidenced in 2019 with the progressive abandonment of marijuana and poppy fields in the mountains of Sinaloa and Guerrero.

Although the Mexican organization remains a major cocaine supplier in the neighboring country to the north, it is now betting on fentanyl to meet the growing demand for opioids.

Fentanyl is “a synthetic opioid that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine […] It was developed for the treatment of pain in cancer patients, applied through a skin patch. Because of its powerful opioid properties, fentanyl is also being diverted for drug use.

Fentanyl is added to heroin to increase its potency or disguised as very potent heroin. “Many users believe they are buying heroin and in reality do not know they are buying fentanyl, which often results in deaths from overdose,” describes the US Drug Enforcement Agency on its website, which also emphasizes that this substance “is primarily manufactured in Mexico.”

On a recent trip to Sinaloa, on the Pacific coast, US media outlet Business Insider gained access to a fentanyl lab operated by the Sinaloa Cartel.

The lab, sheltered in a tent, had been set up in an unpopulated area on the outskirts of Culiacán, the state capital, and was stocked with the necessary equipment to process the opioid: a large pot, a homemade press, and a few other basic tools.

According to the newspaper, there were five people working there: a cook, three assistants and an armed guard in charge of radio communications. All must wear military uniforms, which help them to camouflage from the authorities.

“Our customer base on the other side (of the border) doesn’t want the old black goat anymore,” said one of the cartel members in charge of the illegal lab, referring to Mexican black tar heroin. US drug users “got used to super-powerful heroin enhanced with fentanyl,” he explained.

According to him, users in the US started asking for fentanyl-enhanced heroin as early as 2015, but their demands were not met until early 2019.

“One of the cooks learned from a Chinese man, brought here by the cartel. He is the only one who knew the recipe. But many began to die because we still hadn’t come up with the right formula and, many of the customers were not aware of the new product’s potency,” he detailed.

One of such victims was Landon Marsh, the youngest son of Arizona State Senator Christine Marsh. “He bought a street drug laced with fentanyl and it killed him,” said the senator, who is now engaged in the fight against fentanyl in Arizona, where she advocates the use of fentanyl test strips.

In the fentanyl trafficking scenario, China provides the raw material, the Mexican cartels provide the labor, and the United States provides the victims.

Infobae Mexico found that Chinese companies export the precursor to Mexico to supply the drug cartels, which process and traffic it for distribution to the US, where the number of fentanyl-related deaths has dramatically increased.

The latest US government’s national State of Drugs report cautions that opioid deaths in the country have risen dramatically in recent years. In 2016 the number of deaths related to this type of narcotic stood at 19.413, but by 2017 it had increased to 28.466 cases.

Fentanyl is considered by US authorities to be a strong synthetic opioid similar to morphine, but with an effect up to 100 times more powerful, addictive and fatal. In addition to having a more powerful effect than other drugs, experts point out that it is easy for Mexican drug cartels to import it, as it is also a drug that can be legally imported and prescribed because it is used to treat patients in severe pain.

But the irresponsibility of the Chinese authorities and the lack of control of the ports of entry in Mexico allow quantities much larger than those needed to cover legitimate medical treatments to be trafficked.

In its prescription form, fentanyl is known as Actiq®, Duragesic® and Sublimaze®.4,5. According to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, common names for illegal fentanyl are Apache, China Girl, China White, Dance Fever, Friend, Goodfellas, Jackpot, Murder 8, and Tango & Cash.

According to the agency, like heroin, morphine and other opioids, fentanyl acts by binding to receptors in different areas of the brain that control pain, emotions, and provide users with a sense of well-being and extreme euphoria.

Source: Infobae

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