The seizures of fentanyla synthetic opioid trafficked in Mexico that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in the United States, increased by 300% on the border between the two countries in the last four yearsaccording to data from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
In its 2023 Mexico Peace Index report, presented this Wednesday, the agency noted that between 2015 and 2022, the total volume of fentanyl seized at all border points increased from 31.8 kilograms to 6,668.
A trend that is repeated in the amount of this drug seized in Mexican territory, most of it in the northwest of the country: from 2016 to 2022 it increased from 11 to 2,114 kilos, 192 times more.
Mexico has traditionally been seen as a producer or transit point for drugs bound for the United States, and its internal drug market has also been growing in recent years,” said Carlos Juárez, IEP director for Mexico.
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Fentanyl, in addition to being one of the main public health problems in the United States, It has generated various frictions between the governments of both countries in recent months.
Although the Mexican government, despite different evidence, defends that the opioid is not manufactured in the country and that its use is not widespread, the report indicates that, between 2019 and 2021, the number of people treated for fentanyl overdose in Mexico increased by 636%.
Despite its risks for consumers -it is estimated that its effect is at least 50 times stronger than that of heroin-, fentanyl has become an exceptional source of income for its producersorganized crime groups.
The report states that this drug is “relatively cheap to produce”which means that the profit margins when it is sold and distributed increase up to 2,700 times the price of production.
Michoacán and Colima ‘epicenters’ of crime
The municipality of Zamora, in the central state of Michoacán, last year became the place with the highest homicide rate in the country, with an estimated 200 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
This is due, the IEP indicated, to the fight between criminal groups to control clandestine methamphetamine and heroin laboratories, as well as the reception and distribution of chemical precursors that arrive from China to produce, among other drugs, fentanyl.
Trafficking in these chemical products has also unleashed violence in the state of Colima, home to the port of Manzanillo, one of the busiest in the country and a gateway for precursors.
The homicide rate in 2022 was the highest of all the states in the last eight years, with 110 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, especially due to the fight of the cartels to control the entry of drugs by sea.
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