U.S. interest in Ovidio Guzman? He is a main trafficker of fentanyl and meth to the U.S.

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

Mexican security officials say that what really interested United States authorities in a son of  Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman last month was his fentanyl business.

Or spoken about in the Ovidio Guzman Lopez,  was a name seldom heard in the U.S. until October 17^th when a failed arrest operation in Culiacan put his face and name in the bulls eye of media reporting on both sides of the border.

It was reported that it was the U.S. that was pushing for Ovidio’s capture and extradition. They also report that it was the request of the operation to arrest Ovidio on that day was the request of the U.S.----something the U.S. denies.

Wherever the truth lies, what is now being reported is what really interests The United States in El Chapo’s son is his fentanyl business.

Mexico identifies Ovidio as one of the major exporters of fentanyl and meth to the United States.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval characterized Ovidio as "among the main traffickers who move drugs to the United States in the area of meth and fentanyl."

Luis Crececio Sandoval González, secretary of the National Defense (Sedena), said that fentanyl is the drug that is currently causing greater damage to society worldwide, especially thousands of deaths in the United States.

He explained that fentanyl is an opioid of synthetic origin, which is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more than heroin; It was developed in 1959, by the pharmaceutical industry and is used in patients with chronic pain.

Knock off pills including Viocodan, Percocet and others, with users taking the drug without knowledge that fentanyl is mixed into the production of the street drugs.  Consequences have been deadly with a massive spike in overdoses.  It was the cause of the death of the singer Prince.  He consumed what he thought were street knockoff Percocet, unaware he was also taking fentanyl.

Most of all fentanyl originates in China, but it is in Mexico where it is  pressed into pills smuggled into the U.S. The relatively recent appearance of labs suggests the cartels are importing precursor chemicals and then producing the fentanyl themselves.

On October 7, the Federal Public Ministry initiated the investigation file against Ovidio Guzmán López and other accomplices, for the crimes of organized crime for the purpose of collection and trafficking of weapons, kidnapping, collection of “piso” and crimes against health .

They identified the three addresses to which he frequented. One address was where he was taken into custody.

On Oct. 17, Mexican security forces captured and later released Guzmán in a failed operation that resulted in 13 deaths.

Ovidio is the younger brother of Edgar gunned down in a parking lot in 2008.  They are the sons of Griselda López, Chapo’s second wife.  Ovidio is the  half brother of the better known Guzman brothers Ivan and Alfredo.