The Mexican government announced on Friday the confiscation of 18 kilos of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid whose traffic argues the US president, Donald Trump, as a reason to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada as of February 1.
The drug was discovered next to the spare tire of a passenger bus during an operation near the border with the United States, between the cities of Santa Ana and Hermosillo, capital of the state of Sonora (bordering with Arizona, United States).
In total, about 18 kilos of fentanyl pills and two kilos of heroin were confiscated, they detailed in a joint statement the Secretariats of Defense, Marine and Security, the Attorney General’s Office and the National Guard.
This seizure coincides with Trump’s announcement to impose 25% tariffs on imported products from Mexico and Canada, its partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (T-MEC), as of February 1.
The president justifies that measure as a way of pressing both countries to intensify their efforts against fentanyl traffic – which causes tens of thousands of deaths every year in the United States – and migration.
Washington says that inputs to manufacture this drug (50 times more powerful than heroin) come from China.
The Mexican authorities have multiplied the seizures of synthetic drugs, in particular fentanil, in the midst of Trump’s pressures.
Last December, the government reported a record seizure in Sinaloa (northwest) of more than one ton of pills of that substance, equivalent to about 20 million doses.
At the end of that month, the destruction of more than 416,000 fentanyl pills in Jalisco (west) was also reported.
