Fentanyl Begins To Cause Deaths In Sinaloa

 "Ivan" for Borderland Beat 

Intoxicated youths arrive at private clinics in Culiacán because they are involved in the production of the drug; the so-called "cocineros" (cooks). Fentanyl began to claim lives in Sinaloa, the main state producing the drug.

State authorities had not detected overdose deaths until last April, when the first two occurred and last week they confirmed the third.

The first two victims are two young men under 25 years of age, from Culiacán; and the third is a 50 year old man, with address in Colonia Antonio Toledo Corro, but originally from the city of Tijuana, Baja California.

At the national level, there is no data on deaths from fentanyl; the National Commission against Addictions of the federal Health Secretariat claims not to have a record.

Overdose deaths had been detected in Baja California, thanks to associations working on addiction prevention.

In that state, according to the associations Verter and Prevencasa, last year there were 464 cases of fentanyl overdoses, four of them fatal. Most of the overdoses were in men over 34 years of age and in drug dens. Last May 12, it was reported that in Tijuana, five people died from fentanyl overdoses in a 24-hour period.

This association implemented a naloxone distribution program at the Red Cross, a medicine that allows reversing the effects of the overdose. For the rest of the country, the number of deaths is unknown because there are no official statistics. Conadic assures that it has no reports of deaths or intoxications due to fentanyl overdose.

The only information the federal agency has is for other drugs. In the case of Sinaloa, it reports that since 2012 there have been 151 overdose deaths.

It also records hospital admissions for overdoses in the same period, of which 122 were for cannabinoid use, 316 for cocaine, 117 for other stimulants including methamphetamine, 268 for sedative overdoses and 177 for opiates.

In the entity they began to detect the first pills in 2018, but in clandestine laboratories where they produced them. In edition 982 Ríodoce reported that the states of Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa, where the Sinaloa Cartel operates, concentrate fentanyl seizures.

According to state authorities, in Sinaloa they have not detected fentanyl production. They presume that the paste is brought from other places and the pills are made here. As of April of this year, local authorities had arrested the first fentanyl dealer.

The arrest was made on Aguilar Barraza street, almost on the corner of Florentino Arciénega Avenue, in the Miguel Hidalgo neighborhood, in Culiacán. The 19-year-old was arrested while selling the pills on the street. Governor Rubén Rocha Moya ruled out that Sinaloa has gone from being a fentanyl producing state to a consumer state.

                                        NOVEMBER 2021. Drug Seizure in Culiacan.

"It is not a consumer state, it can be, very regrettable too, to be in the issue that before sending it to you I am going to see if it is effective the one I produced and have at a test level to drug dealers," he said.

He mentioned that there are "things they do with these drugs that have especially market destinations, above all the United States, many times it happens that although they do not circulate them here, because we are seeing if it has been generalized, in any way it happens that they test their effectiveness on addicts and that can be happening, that is why we have already seen that it is not generalized, but we are taking care of it".

He stated that he is implementing operations through a state strategy to prevent the distribution of fentanyl.

"We are putting a specific emphasis on this, we are effectively turning on the alarm light, and within the fight against drug dealing we have this issue very specifically because, as you said, it has a greater effect," he said.

Cristóbal Castañeda Camarillo, Secretary of Public Security in the state, pointed out that the State Attorney General's Office has initiated investigation files for the overdose deaths.

He stated that the first deaths have raised the alarm due to the high risk that the consumption of the pills represents.

"In the United States it costs 20 dollars and here they sell it for 20 pesos, the difference is extremely high, we do not know what quality it has, we need to investigate a lot, we are working hand in hand with the State Attorney General's Office. It is a serious alert, it is a very small pill practically a little bigger than an Aspirin Protect that can be consumed by ingesting it, sometimes it is diluted in water or there are even people who burn it and the smoke has a wide variety of consumption, but it is extremely dangerous because there is no quality control in its production and it is an extremely dangerous chemical", he said.

He assured that the agency, in coordination with the Army, implements operations to secure laboratories where the pills are produced. In Sinaloa, he explained, last year alone they seized close to 2 million fentanyl pills.

He commented that 34 drug dealers have been arrested this year, but only one of them for selling fentanyl. He mentioned that to prevent consumption, a joint strategy is required with the Ministries of Health, Public Education and Culture, the State Center for Prevention and Citizen Participation and the Directorate of Preventive Programs of the SSPE.

"The issue has been discussed and not only fentanyl, at the end of the day one thing leads to another, they start using marijuana, then they look for crystal meth and now we have the hypothesis that some people could be using fentanyl, but we still do not have an overall picture," he said.

He stated that "the call we make to society is to understand that it is an extremely dangerous drug, there is no quality control in the production, an overdose can easily kill a person and this has caused in the United States more than 100 thousand deaths in a year, so the intention is to continue spreading or to detect the consumption of this type of substances in a timely manner".

Ríodoce's medical sources assured that so far several private clinics in Culiacán have received people intoxicated by fentanyl, but in all cases they are people who are involved in the production of the drug, known as "cooks".

In the United States, health authorities announced on May 11 that last year at least 107,000 people died of overdoses in that country, an increase of 21 percent compared to 2020.

The DEA claims that the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel are the main criminal groups that manufacture fentanyl pills from Mexico to send them to the United States.

                                            INTERNATIONAL HIGHWAY. Gaspar "N" is killed.

Fentanyl producer gunned down.

Last week Gaspar "G", 48 years old, linked to fentanyl production by state authorities, was murdered.

Gaspar was the brother of Jose "G", alias "El Che", arrested in March 2021 in the Ampliacion El Barrio neighborhood and identified as the main fentanyl producer for the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartel - New Generation. Gaspar had been arrested on April 29 along with two other men on Pedro Infante Boulevard.

The arrest occurred after a chase by members of the State Preventive Police. The three men were driving a black Ford Lobo pick-up truck and were carrying four rifles and two pistols. The detainees were brought before a supervisory judge who, on May 6, ordered that they not be prosecuted and they were released.

On the afternoon of Thursday, May 19, Gaspar was killed on the Mexico 15 International Highway, near La Presita. Gaspar was driving from north to south in the same pick-up truck in which he was arrested in April when he was intercepted by armed men and got out of the vehicle and ran towards a field where he was killed.

At night, armed men allegedly prowled the facilities of the Forensic Medical Services of the State Attorney General's Office, located in the State Public Security Complex, in the Aguaruto syndicate. Agents from local law enforcement agencies, the Army and the National Guard besieged the Complex to prevent the possible theft of a corpse. State authorities presume that the body that could be stolen was Gaspar's, although when the armed men were reported, the body was not yet at the Semefo. Gaspar is believed by local authorities to be a producer of fentanyl pills.

When they arrested his brother Che, they seized 800,000 fentanyl pills, close to 30 kilos of cocaine paste, two pill machines, precursor chemicals, suspected synthetic drugs, a long gun, two handguns, two vehicles and cash.

Following the arrest, the Ministry of National Defense announced that Che could produce up to 300,000 fentanyl pills per day, earning weekly profits of up to $60 million dollars. He allegedly supplied Mexican cartels and international groups.

Article published on May 22, 2022 in the 1008th edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

RIODOCE