Trump Effect: Mexico Seizes 20 Million Doses of Fentanyl in Record-Breaking Haul

Trump Effect: Mexico Seizes 20 Million Doses of Fentanyl in Record-Breaking Haul

Legal Insurrection readers may recall our report on President-elect Donald Trump threatening to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico unless it takes stronger action to control the flow of illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl, into this country.

Now, Mexican troops have seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the northern state of Sinaloa, marking the largest seizure of the synthetic opioid in the country’s history.

The raids came after a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year, and days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless those countries cracked down on the flow of migrants and drugs across the border.

Experts say the timing may not be a coincidence.

“It is clear that the Mexican government has been managing the timing of fentanyl seizures,” said security 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 said it’s clear the Mexican government “doesn’t see fentanyl as one of its own problems, and fighting it isn’t its priority,” He added there would only be big busts “when there is pressure from Washington.”

Sheinbaum announced that this operation was the culmination of an extensive investigation. The seizure also included chemical precursors necessary for fentanyl production, industrial mixers, and scales.

She added that the operation seized more than 20 million doses of fentanyl pills worth nearly $400 million.

Ms. Sheinbaum, who has promised to curb cartels’ rampant violence, has faced a bloody first two months in office. Warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel have turned the state into a war zone following the abduction and arrest by American agents of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a godfather of the cartel who was betrayed by the son of his fellow cartel co-founder, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo.

“These actions will continue until the violence in the state of Sinaloa decreases,” Mexico’s security minister, Omar García Harfuch, said on social media, referring to the drug seizures.

Mr. García Harfuch announced this week that since Ms. Sheinbaum took office on Oct. 1, Mexican authorities have arrested more than 5,300 people and seized nearly 58 tons of drugs — including the equivalent of 50 million doses of fentanyl.

Trump’s re-election was divinely timed, to be sure. The Mexican cartels were getting tired of the Chinese chemical lords cutting into their profits, so they were beginning to recruit chemistry students at the local universities.

Think Breaking Bad with a south-of-the-border twist.

In their quest to build fentanyl empires, Mexican criminal groups are turning to an unusual talent pool: not hit men or corrupt police officers, but chemistry students studying at Mexican universities.

People who make fentanyl in cartel labs, who are called cooks, told The New York Times that they needed workers with advanced knowledge of chemistry to help make the drug stronger and “get more people hooked,” as one cook put it.

The cartels also have a more ambitious goal: to synthesize the chemical compounds, known as precursors, that are essential to making fentanyl, freeing them from having to import those raw materials from China.

If they succeed, U.S. officials say, it would represent a terrifying new phase in the fentanyl crisis, in which Mexican cartels have more control than ever over one of the deadliest drugs in recent history.

Hopefully, the pressure continues to work, and the chemistry students can go onto careers that support healthy living and a civil society.

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