Fentanyl, The Threat That Causes Warning Lights To Go Off In Sinaloa

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

So far this year four people have lost their lives to the drug, including a baby just over a year old.

The Governor: fentanyl is not produced in the region.

The increase in fentanyl consumption in Sinaloa has put authorities on alert. With clear warnings that this narcotic is 50 times more addictive than heroin and its effects are devastating, the situation is alarming, according to health institutions.

Although the active substance is not produced locally, according to the United Nations (UN), Sinaloa is among the states with the highest consumption of fentanyl.

Last weekend, in Culiacan, a tragedy occurred with the death of a one-year-old baby from fentanyl intoxication. The following day, another four-year-old child was hospitalized for the same reason. Both cases are under investigation by the State Attorney General's Office, according to Attorney General Sara Bruna Quiñonez Estrada.

So far this year, the Health Secretariat reports that four people have lost their lives in Sinaloa due to fentanyl intoxication, and 98 individuals have arrived at emergency services in critical condition due to this synthetic drug.

The Epidemiological Surveillance System for Addictions confirms the increase, with 15 people admitted to rehabilitation centers for fentanyl use in 2022.

An increase in fentanyl use in Sinaloa has put authorities on alert.

However, so far in 2023, this figure has doubled, reaching a total of 31 registered cases, including that of a minor.

Luis Ramos, director of Rehabilitation Centers in Sinaloa, paints a bleak picture, describing fentanyl use as a dark journey that distorts the perception of life and poses a serious threat of death.

"An addict who wants to consume doesn’t know what he is putting in his body. It is consumed in smoke pipes, in bubblers, in a dropper. There are people who have arrived trembling, talking to themselves.

"They want to tear off their skin when they feel that something is moving underneath it. They have reached such a degree that there is no control. You're mixing fentanyl and crystal meth at the same time. Generally speaking, people don't know what is being introduced at this moment," he commented.

This is confirmed by Martha Alicia Torres, president of the Sinaloa State Commission on Addictions (CEPTCA), who warns that, although some young people claim not to have consumed fentanyl, they test positive for the drug, which could be due to the phenomenon known as "contaminated drugs," where criminal groups mix fentanyl with other substances to make them more addictive.

"What we are detecting is that, although some young people claim to consume only marijuana, the anti-doping tests are coming back positive for fentanyl.

"This is a high-risk situation that should concern us, that should alert us within all intuitions because the generation that is going to sow our future is finally being affected. If these children and adolescents of 8, 9 and 10 years old are currently being affected by drugs, we should be concerned about the future of our society".

Sinaloa's Public Security Secretariat (SSP) admits a disturbing reality: so far in 2023, they have managed to secure more than 4,100,000 fentanyl pills in the region. At the same time, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) reveals its own figures.

From January 1, 2020 to June 15, 2023, they have seized close to 7 million fentanyl pills in Sinaloa, equivalent to more than 1,300 kilograms of this dangerous drug.

Most of these seizures are concentrated in Culiacán, the state capital, with 5 million 947,844 pills confiscated, equivalent to 902.862 kilograms.

Governor Rubén Rocha Moya has emphatically emphasized that fentanyl is not produced in the region, since the seizures made so far have not been in drug laboratories, but in manufacturing centers.

These places are used by criminal groups to manufacture fentanyl pills.

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