“To produce fentanyl in a laboratory, (a place) is required where exposure conditions can be regulated and measured, where there is specialized personal protective equipment for the development of a complex chemical synthesis process such as the production of fentanyl and with professional ventilation systems and not the fan present in the note. Very simply, if it had been fentanyl that was being produced, the operator, the person who was doing it would have lasted 30 seconds and would have fallen dead as a result of the fumes”, he highlighted.
He added that although the production of fentanyl has been facilitated, it is a process in which security measures are required.
“It is not easy to produce and it is not free of health risks, a special suit is required to be able to produce. There is a phenomenon of merchandise fetishism, a lot of imagination and a lot of advertising, especially from television series that have made a caricature of the production,” he commented.
The article in the American newspaper details that in a kitchen in the center of Culiacán, Sinaloa, members of organized crime ‘cook’ kilos and kilos of fentanyl as if it were a dinner for their families.
“The laboratory was hidden in a house in the heart of the city of Culiacán, on a bustling street full of pedestrians, cars and food stalls. There were no smells or smoke outside that could alert a passerby to the large quantities of fentanyl that were cooking behind the door,” reads the reportage .
In the morning conference of President Claudia Sheinbaum, an analysis was presented of the video that accompanies the report titled “This is what a fentanyl laboratory of the Sinaloa Cartel looks like” and in which part of the production of that synthetic drug is seen.
Juana Peñaloza Ibarra, a field precursor chemist analyst at the Navy Secretariat, explained that during the alleged production of fentanyl The minimum personal protective equipment required to avoid poisoning due to the toxic gases released during the process was not used. and stated that it does not correspond to criminal dynamics to change the location quickly as mentioned in the publication.
“It is concluded that there are not sufficient elements to demonstrate that the information presented in the New York Times article documents a fentanyl hydrochloride synthesis laboratory,” he stated.
