Crisis In The 'Kitchen'; Lack Of Inputs Reduces The Production Of Synthetic Drugs In Culiacán

 "Ivan" for Borderland Beat 

The situation seems unlikely, but it is real: a couple of crucial ingredients for the production of synthetic drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, have been in short supply for weeks, causing the "cooks" of these drugs linked to the Sinaloa Cartel to limit their production.

"We have four or five weeks that certain types of ingredients do not arrive, and that has caused us to have the 'kitchens' stop, without us knowing when we are going to resume," said a fentanyl cook who operates for the Zambada faction, and who He agreed to talk to Ríodoce about that situation.

The information was corroborated by another "cook", who claimed to be independent, but agreed that the lack of chemicals is at least four weeks old, and that it could have its origin in how difficult it is for them to get the products from their contacts. in China.

“It is not precursors that we need, those do continue to arrive, what the bosses are struggling to obtain are chemicals such as acetic anhydride and propionyl chloride; without those two chemicals nothing can be done”, burst the “cook”.

Dismayed, the drug “cook” makes the following analogy: It is as if you wanted to make tortillas and you have the flour, and the griddle, and the gas or the firewood, but you don't have the water. You know that without water you will not be able to do anything, even when you have everything else.

The United States Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said it would not comment on the matter, without clarifying whether it was true or not, what the drug chefs said.

If it is real, and according to the calculations of the drug chefs, it will be a matter of a few weeks for this type of drug to become scarce in the United States, and it would be unprecedented, since not even during the pandemic did a similar situation arise.

“It was different, because when the borders were closed due to the pandemic, rearrangements had to be made and it was a matter of time for mules of gringo origin to pass the drug in cars, now there will be no drug to pass because it is simply not being produced ”, said the cook linked to the Zambada faction.

In a tour made by one of the narco-laboratories where this weekly had access, it was possible to observe the abandonment of the place due to lack of supplies.

“And it's not that the bosses are no longer asking us for a product, they do ask us, but if we can't do it because of those ingredients, what do we do? We can do nothing, just wait for the bosses to move and get those ingredients, who knows where, to produce them, otherwise we don't know what's going to happen”, observed the “chef” concerned.

According to the annual report of the DEA, in 2021, the majority of precursors and chemicals for the production of synthetic drugs come from China and Germany, and the belief of drug traffickers and producers is that the United States government threatened pharmaceutical companies. such as Bayer, and Sinopharm, Chongqing Tong Jun Ge Big Drugstore, China Nepstar Drugstore and Guangdong Da ShenLin Drugstore, to regulate the production of certain chemicals, in a new attempt to stop the production and eventual trafficking of illegal synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl, which from June 2020 to June 2021, killed more than 100,000 addicts in the United States.

The lack of chemicals coincides with a series of seizures made by the Mexican government that, led by DEA informants, managed to seize 3,907 kilos of solid methamphetamine and 2,408 kilos of liquid drugs, at the Carboneras ranch at the end of last January, and two months earlier they had seized 118 kilos of fentanyl in Culiacán.

“The only thing I can say is that those drugs are going to go up; if a few months ago producing a kilo of methamphetamine cost 200 dollars, now it is going to triple, if these products arrive, which must arrive, because the truth is that there is a lot of money involved in this business, ”observed the cook.

RIODOCE

Article published on March 13, 2022 in the 998 edition of the weekly Ríodoce.