Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #495

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Coronavirus Hits Mexican Cartels And LeadsToShortagesof MethAndFentanyl As ChemicalsCan’t BeSourcedFromChina
Emily Prescott
MEXICAN cartels are taking a hit as coronavirus is leading to short- ages of meth and fentanyl as the chemicals can’t be sourced from China.
Criminal group Jalisco Cartel can no longer secure the chemical ingredients required to make the drug fentanyl, which are also supplied by China, according to Insight crime.
Sinaloa cartel operatives in Mexico told VICE this week that importing the chemicals they need to make methampheta- mine and fentanyl
has become hard- er and more com- plicated, which is creating a short- age and pushing up prices.
“Now we are all struggling to get
the chemicals to Sinaloa from China,” one drug trafficker told VICE from Culiacán, Sinaloa.
Production of methampheta-
mine and fentanyl is still happening, he said, but at lower rates than usual.
“We haven't stopped produc- ing, but the price
of meth is getting pushed up because of the scarcity of chemi- cals from China....trans- porting them this far is also getting much more
expensive,” the cartel operative said.
China has histori- cally been
the main supplier of precursor chemicals and illicitly manufac- tured fentanyl to Mexico’s cartels.
Much of this has been supplied in bulk in cargo rather than via the postal system.
The chemicals are often misla- beled to conceal what they are, and shipped to major ports in Mexico such as Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacán and Mazatlán in Sinaloa.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine