Mexico City.- Mexico has dramatically reduced its seizures of fentanyl this year, a highly lucrative drug for cartels that continues to flood the United States, authorities reported on Tuesday.
According to official figures made public by the Navy, from January to June 2024, 130 kilos of fentanyl were seized throughout the country, an amount that, although it only corresponds to half of the year, is significantly lower than the 2,329 kilos seized in all of 2023.
The synthetic opioid is responsible for some 70,000 overdose deaths each year in the United States, which is why authorities in that country have tried to redouble their efforts to detect it as soon as it crosses the border, often in the form of pills manufactured in Mexico. Washington has also insisted with Mexican authorities that they double their efforts in the fight against trafficking of this drug.
However, the Mexican military appears to have shifted its focus to seizing methamphetamine. Mexico seized a record 400-plus tons of the drug in 2023, more than 12 times what it seized in 2022. That pace continued in the first half of 2024, with 168 tons.
Both drugs are exported to the United States, but while fentanyl is rarely consumed in Mexico, methamphetamines are widely used and have become the drug of choice among the working class.
The Navy, which provided the latest data during the president’s press conference, did not explain why the figures for seizures of these two substances have changed so abruptly.
Some analysts believe that infighting within the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s largest producer of methamphetamine, may be behind these changes.
Currently the “Mayitos” — followers of the old-line cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada — are at odds with the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, known as “Chapitos.”
There have been cases in the past where competing groups have denounced their opponents in order to cause them losses.
Mexican security analyst David Saucedo did not rule out this possibility, although he said he had no data on the matter.
However, he did consider that the internal conflict may be causing the reduction of fentanyl shipments to the United States. Open violence inhibits the shipment of cargoes because it is easier to lose them during the journey.
The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has insisted in the past that fentanyl is not produced in Mexico and that Mexican cartels only press the drug into pills or add finishing touches.
However, experts agree that cartels use chemical precursors from China and India to manufacture the synthetic opioid and smuggle it into the United States.
In fact, the head of the Mexican Criminal Investigation Agency, Felipe de Jesús Gallo, went so far as to say in April that Mexico was “the champion” in the production of fentanyl, although two days later he had to apologize for his statements after López Obrador asked the Attorney General’s Office to clarify such comments.
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