Donald Trump assured Monday, November 25, that his first economic measures after his inauguration in January would be to increase customs duties on products coming from China but also from Canada and Mexico, decisions that he justifies by the crises linked to opioids and immigration. The president-elect of the United States accuses China in particular of not taking firm enough measures to stop the entry into American territory of illegal drugs from Mexico, “especially fentanyl”.
It is a drug, a painkiller so powerful and addictive that it is administered in tiny doses by doctors. But fentanyl has been diverted from its medical use. It is used as a drug, “about 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin”, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Fentanyl sold on the American black market mainly comes from Mexico, where there are thousands of small clandestine laboratories, “coccinero”. The two major Mexican cartels – Sinaloa and Jalisco – obtain their supplies mainly from China. Some active ingredients of the powerful synthetic drug are legally manufactured there. “Narcos manage to import fentanyl from China. They mix this drug with different chemicals, including acids, which will transform it into a product that will not immediately kill its user, even if it is extremely strong. But especially with products that will transform a powder into a paste which will dry and can be transformed into pellets”, Bertrand Monnet, specialist in the economics of crime, explained on franceinfo. He produced a documentary series for the newspaper The Worldtitled “Narco Business.”
Then, these traffickers “use their vast distribution network to transport drugs into the United States”according to the DEA. Fentanyl has devastating effects. It causes at least 70,000 overdose deaths each year in the United States, according to American authorities. It is one of the leading causes of death in the country. This public health problem has become one of the priorities of the White House under Joe Biden. On several occasions in recent years, Washington has taken economic sanctions against Mexicans and Chinese accused of being linked to fentanyl trafficking.
In March 2024, for example, 15 members of the powerful Mexican Sinaloa Cartel and six Mexico-based companies were sanctioned for participating in “a black market peso trading scheme aimed at laundering millions from fentanyl for the Sinaloa cartel”, the US Department of the Treasury explained in a press release. In July, Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and his former partner's son, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, were arrested in Texas. Anne Milgram, the head of the DEA, the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, welcomed these arrests which struck “the heart of the cartel that is responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, that are killing Americans from coast to coast.”
On November 8, a Chinese company, its director and several of its employees were indicted by the American justice system, accused of having illegally sold chemical compounds contained in fentanyl, according to the American Department of Justice.
After years of tense diplomatic exchanges with Washington, Beijing committed this summer to strengthening controls on chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl in particular. China assures that it ensures that they are intended for the pharmaceutical industry and not for traffickers. The new president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum – like her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – shows her firm intention to fight against drug trafficking.
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