The Costly Price Of Making Fentanyl In Culiacan: Sinaloa

"Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article translated and reposted from RÍODOCE

Joaquin 'Chapo' Guzman's sons warned that they would implement punishments against those who refuse to stop producing the drug.

"Those who cook fentanyl or make the M30 pills are being blackmailed, and if they reoffend, they are being killed," confirmed a member of the Sinaloa Cartel who, like the rest of the cooks who manufacture this type of drug, received a warning to stop cooking synthetic narcotics in the area around Culiacán.

The above comment coincides with a rumor that had circulated weeks ago, in which it was said that people linked to the Chapitos faction had ordered them to stop producing fentanyl, after the US Department of Justice accused them of being the main responsible for the production and trafficking of the drug to the United States.

As a result, Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán's sons sent a letter to Azucena Uresti's newscast clarifying that they did not produce this type of drug, but that there were many narcos, not linked to them, who did, and that it was a matter of the Mexican and U.S. authorities locating them to realize that they were telling the truth.

None of the fentanyl labs that have been seized belonged to Los Chapitos, according to the same cooks interviewed, but the DEA says they have information confirming that the faction led by Los Menores, as Guzman Loera's sons are also known, are the main producers of the fentanyl trafficked to the United States.

"What happens is that many of the drug traffickers they extradite negotiate with U.S. prosecutors, and as long as they get their sentences reduced, they tell them what they want to hear, and what they want to hear is that the Chapitos are the ones who produce fentanyl," said the drug trafficker during an interview with Ríodoce and the British media outlet Sky News.

The executed and fentanyl

On Monday last week, the bodies of two men were found lifeless on top of more than 20 kilos of fentanyl pills near the area known as La Costerita, south of Culiacán. Two days later, on Wednesday, June 28, another person was found dead with his back covered in M30 pills. In all three cases the bodies showed signs of having been tortured.

A cook who operates in a rural area near the municipality of Badiraguato told this reporter via text message that the fentanyl cooks are afraid, and that no one is cooking and no one is producing M30 pills.

"That's why we haven't had any work and everything continues to stop because of the order that exists, and there are some who are encouraged, but as soon as the people at the top find out that they are cooking, they go after them and you can imagine what they do to them: they give them a good beating and if they don't follow orders, they kill them," said one cook to whom this media outlet had access.

The psychosis experienced by the drug cooks is general, because the order from the bosses is that this type of drug should no longer be produced in Culiacan or the surrounding area, in order to erase the stigma that it is Los Chapitos who are in charge of production.

"I imagine they want to tell the world that they are not involved. Well, maybe they are, but there are people who work for them who are, and that's why they gave the order that no one was to cook fentanyl in Culiacan," the cook said.

Another person familiar with the order said that the psychosis is general and that those who are caught cooking the drug, in the best case scenario, they will use the "wooden-paddle", that is, they are given 20 or 30 "whipping" so that they no longer produce fentanyl, but if they reoffend, they can be killed.

"It also depends on the gunman or the cell (of hitmen) that catches him, but the cooks don't understand, and they only do it to make a buck, but when the order comes from very high up you have to obey, and those who don't are getting killed," said a poppy farmer from the Badiraguato highlands, who knows several people who, until a few months ago, were dedicated to producing the so-called M30 pills.

Many fentanyl cookers who earned income from the production of that drug are considering moving their labs or taking their pill machines to other states rather than flout the order and the possibility of facing death.

The DEA said it would not comment on the Sinaloa Cartel's order to stop producing fentanyl.

Article published on July 02, 2023 in issue 1066 of the weekly Ríodoce.

Source: Riodoce