A massive seizure of the drug suggests that fentanyl production is thriving in Mexico, despite a supposed ban by certain criminal groups under massive US pressure.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Port of Lukeville, Arizona, made the largest single fentanyl seizure in CBP history, according to an agency press release.
On July 1, a US citizen arrived at the border in a pickup truck, and during the vehicle’s inspection, officers discovered four million blue fentanyl pills, weighing over 453 kilos (over 1,000 pounds). It is nearly quadruple the previous single record of 115 kilograms (254 pounds) in 2019, seized in Nogales, Arizona.
The size is particularly significant, as fentanyl is typically smuggled in much smaller quantities, making it much harder to detect. In 2023, the average amount of fentanyl seized in land seizures on the US-Mexico Border event was just 10.4 kilos (around 22 pounds), according to CBP seizure data accessed by InSight Crime.
SEE ALSO: An Extradition (and a Fentanyl Prohibition) as Mexico Tries a Counterdrug Reset
The seizure comes a year and a half after the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, led by several sons of the now-jailed former leader Joaquín “El Chapo,” Guzmán, demanded a halt to all fentanyl production in Culiacán, Sinaloa. This area was the epicenter of synthetic drug production, and the concession was perhaps made to ease government pressure on the criminal group, following the extradition to the United States of one of the Chapitos’ leaders, Ovidio Guzmán, and US indictments against the Chaptios in April.
Following the ban, fentanyl seizures along the US-Mexico border dropped from May through September 2023 but began to fluctuate from October 2023 to the present. While seizures are not a perfect metric to measure production, as they reflect enforcement efforts rather than supply levels, they are one of the few empirical indicators illicit drug watchers can use to measure supply and demand.
InSight Crime Analysis
Though there may have been a temporary ban on fentanyl production in Culiacán, the size of this seizure suggests that fentanyl has continued to be produced in other areas of Mexico.
Given the time elapsed since the ban and the sheer quantity of the drugs seized, it is unlikely that these pills were left over from production before the ban began, and were made more recently.
Instead of a decline in production due to the ban in Culiacán, fentanyl labs may have relocated to other parts of Mexico, particularly Baja California and Sonora, which border the US.
SEE ALSO: Mexico Fentanyl Production Migrates North as Chapitos Death Threats Loom
Besides confirming that fentanyl production has continued in Mexico, the recent seizure also suggests that fentanyl production has dispersed away from the major cartels. Many independent actors, who do not necessarily work together or rely on larger criminal organizations, are responsible for different parts of the fentanyl supply chain: procuring precursor chemicals, producing the drug, and selling it to traffickers or transporting it themselves.
Some groups have sophisticated operations that frequently move small amounts across the border, while less powerful fentanyl traffickers, with fewer resources, may try to smuggle large quantities in one go. The varied methods of smuggling, as demonstrated by the recent seizure, suggest both the fragmentation of the trade and the continued production of fentanyl.
Featured image: US CBP officers stand in front of fentanyl pills seized at the US-Mexico border. Credit: CBP.
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Publish date : 2024-08-06 05:58:00
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