Mexican army and police are seen patroling in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, on Jan. 6, 2023.
Martin Urista/AP
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Martin Urista/AP
MEXICO CITY — Mexican troopers and marines have seized over a ton of fentanyl tablets in two raids within the north, with officers calling it the most important catch of the artificial opioid within the nation’s historical past.
The raids got here after a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this yr, and days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on merchandise from Canada and Mexico until these nations cracked down on the circulation of migrants and medicines throughout the border.
Consultants say the timing is probably not a coincidence.
“It is clear that the Mexican government has been managing the timing of fentanyl seizures,” mentioned safety analyst David Saucedo. “But under the pressure by Donald Trump, it appears President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is willing to the increase the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding.”
Saucedo mentioned it is clear the Mexican authorities “doesn’t see fentanyl as one of its own problems, and fighting it isn’t its priority,” He added there would solely be large busts “when there is pressure from Washington.”
Mexico’s prime safety official mentioned troopers and marines late Tuesday noticed two males carrying weapons within the northern state of Sinaloa, residence to the drug cartel of the identical identify.
They chased the lads, who bumped into two homes. In a single home troopers discovered about 660 kilos (300 kilograms) of fentanyl, and within the different a truck filled with about 1,750 kilos (800 kilograms) of the drug, largely in tablet kind.
“In Sinaloa, we achieved the biggest seizure in history of fentanyl,” Public Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch wrote in his social media accounts. A number of weapons had been additionally seized and two males had been arrested.
President Sheinbaum mentioned Wednesday that “this is an investigation that had been going on for some time, and yesterday it bore fruit.”
However that declare contrasts with the seemingly random nature of the bust, which began when a army patrol “noticed the presence of two men carrying what appeared to be guns.”
Previously, Mexican safety forces have typically used the story of following armed males working into homes as a pretext to enter houses with out search warrants. In a minimum of one case, the federal government model was disproved by safety digital camera footage.
The newest haul was putting as a result of fentanyl seizures in Mexico had fallen dramatically within the first half of the yr. At some factors throughout the summer season, beneath former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, federal forces reported seizures amounted to as little as 50 grams (2 ounces) per week.
Figures for the primary half of 2024 present that Mexican federal forces seized solely 286 kilos (130 kilograms) of fentanyl nationwide between January and June, down 94% from the 5,135 kilos (2,329 kilograms) seized in 2023.
The artificial opioid has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths yearly in the US, and U.S. officers have tried to step up efforts to grab it because it comes over the border, typically within the type of counterfeit tablets made in Mexico from precursor chemical compounds largely imported from China.
López Obrador all the time denied that fentanyl is even produced in Mexico, although specialists — and even members of his personal administration — acknowledge that it’s.
And if Mexico does not go after these fentanyl manufacturing amenities, then they’ll nonetheless be churning out comparable portions sooner or later.
“It’s a very, very big seizure,” Saucedo mentioned. “But if they don’t dismantle the labs, this kind of production will continue.”
Additionally Wednesday, the U.S. State Division introduced it was rising the reward for the highest chief of one other cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, from $10 million to $15 million.
Oseguera, identified by his nickname “El Mencho,” leads the Jalisco cartel, which like Sinaloa, is closely concerned within the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamines.
