According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), between October 2021 and June 2024, have been confiscated 30,844 kilos of the synthetic opioid, of which 29,892 were detained at border points with Mexico.
…And meanwhile in Mexico
The Mexican government, which has also highlighted historic seizures, reports 8,304 kilograms in the López Obrador administration.
According to a report by the organization Insigh Crime titled “Mexico’s role in the deadly rise of fentanyl,” Mexico is a transit and production point for that drug, which enters through the ports of Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas, also because the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel are the most important Mexican suppliers of drugs and their precursors. Despite this, they do not dedicate resources to combat the main Mexican traffickers.
“The Mexican government does not consider fentanyl to be a significant problem yet and has not devoted significant resources to finding the main drivers of the trade within its borders,” one of the report’s findings says.
María Luisa Muñoz Almaguer, professor and researcher at the Department of Pharmacobiology at the University Center for Exact Sciences and Engineering at the University of Guadalajara, believes that since this is a problem that involves Mexico and the United States, each must take measures to combat this drug.
“Of course Mexico is doing something against fentanyl, but the important thing is for each of us to work from our borders, from each of our trenches and do our part,” he explains.
Arrests are key for the US but have no real impact
The arrests of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez were celebrated by the United States government, considering that it is another step in the fight against fentanyl.
Symbolic and media-driven, this is how experts describe the arrest of these two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartelone of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world, however, will not have an impact on the fentanyl market.
“Arresting leaders does not stop the phenomenon…After the arrest of Joaquín Guzmán, the Sinaloa Cartel continued to operate. The same will happen with the arrest of El Mayo and with the son of El Chapo and the cartel will continue to operate,” explains Alejandro Martínez.
Structures replace their leaders because the business is so profitable from an economic point of view that another leadership will arrive to continue the operation”
Alejandro Martínez, professor at La Salle and UNAM.
