Mexico is the world’s “champion” country in the production of synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, a drug that kills thousands of drug addicts in the United States, a senior Mexican security official acknowledged Tuesday during a bilateral meeting.
The admission came as US officials attending the meeting in Mexico yesterday again called for an intensified fight against powerful Mexican cartels.
“Mexico was the champion country in the production of methamphetamines, and now fentanyl,” admitted the head of the Mexican Criminal Investigation Service, Felipe de Jesus Gayo.
Trafficking in synthetic drugs brings “the greatest wealth and the most power” to the cartels, he added.
According to the US Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Mexican cartels process precursor chemicals they import from China and then export to the North American market fentanyl, a drug blamed for tens of thousands of overdose deaths.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to work with the US to attack the root of the problem, but has at times downplayed the scale of production in Mexico.
“We are in the midst of a global crisis due to illegal synthetic drugs,” said Chris Lundberg, deputy director of the US Bureau of International Narcotics, INL.
The US is making intensive efforts to reduce drug demand, he assured his Mexican counterparts.
“But the US is not the only country at risk and we need additional support to fight the global supply of drugs,” he added, stressing that he understands that “criminal organizations are adapting quickly and we need a more flexible and more integrated approach.”
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