Large Fentanyl Labs Moving to Canada and California

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

According to Katarina Szulc, a recent CBC article hinted that the Hells Angels were behind certain labs, but her sources say the Sinaloa Cartel is the real one responsible for the superlabs and most of the fentanyl on Canadian streets. “So far, they have been keeping a low profile, under the radar,” she said.

"Superlab interdictions across B.C., Ontario and Alberta suggest that domestic supply is more than sufficient to supply the domestic market," the note says.

In October 2023, Los Chapitos displayed narco-banners in Culiacán and other towns in Sinaloa, announcing the ban on the sale, manufacture and transportation of fentanyl.

The banners also warned of the sale or commercialization of chemical precursors necessary to produce the drug. The message, attributed to Ivan Archivaldo, Jesus Alfredo and Joaquin Guzman, sons of drug trafficker Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman , said: "We have never been nor will we be related to that business. Face the consequences."

With these warnings, this faction of the Sinaloa Cartel was distancing itself from the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl, despite the fact that this business is one of its most profitable and has made them priority targets for the United States.

Almost a year after these announcements, reports have begun to emerge about the relocation of clandestine laboratories that produce this deadly synthetic drug.

Katarina Szulc, an independent journalist, has revealed that Canada has become the new ground zero for fentanyl production thanks to the infiltration of Mexican cartels, specifically the Sinaloa Cartel.

Sinaloan Labs in Canada

Large-scale raids on clandestine laboratories are becoming more common in Canada. A recent intervention in Drummondville, Quebec, resulted in the seizure of hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills containing potent synthetic opioids.

Szulc says the Sinaloa Cartel has sent its operators into Canada, in states neighbouring the United States, thus increasing the efficiency of trafficking and production. “They send people from Sinaloa to Canada, close to the American states that the cartel is trying to reach. That makes trafficking easier and closer,” he said.

For the past five years, members of the Sinaloa Cartel, particularly Los Chapitos, have settled on Canada’s west coast to run laboratories and large drug trafficking operations . Katarina Szulc recalls: “The Mexican cartels have completely infiltrated the Canadian drug trade without having to cross any borders.”

Former CBC contributor Katarina Szulc explains that the Mexican diaspora in Vancouver is increasingly evident, pointing to their lifelong residence in that city. Despite the presence and activity of local gangs such as Brothers Keepers, Red Scorpion and Hells Angels, the influence of Mexican cartels had been underestimated until now.

Local Asian drug traffickers also play a significant role in this fentanyl production and trafficking chain.
Katarina Szulc says that these suppliers , mainly of Chinese and Vietnamese descent, “help obtain the precursors, bringing them from Asia and supplying them to the laboratories run by the Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl.”

“I have been working here for 4 years: I pick up the things, when they send them to me I check that everything is okay, I am a distributor so to speak, I don’t sell retail, only wholesale. The issue is getting a little dangerous because they are making pills here and now and that attracts more government. They sent people from Sinaloa to do it here, closer to the states they want to reach and the Asians get the chemicals here,” said one of the drug lab operators in an interview.

The shift began roughly in 2019. In May of that year, the Chinese government listed fentanyl as a controlled substance and imposed more regulations on its production and export.

"It is believed this may have prompted the shift from fentanyl and fentanyl analogues being imported into Canada illegally toward domestic production in Canada," the Health Canada briefing note reads.

"It is widely believed that excess product is being exported to lucrative international markets," the note reads.

In 2022, Australian border officials seized 11 kilograms of fentanyl believed to have originated in Canada. Since the start of 2021, U.S. border officials have seized roughly 25 kilograms of fentanyl coming in from the northern border, a relatively small amount compared to seizures on the southern U.S. border.

California Lab Bust

The Buena Park Police Department’s Community Impact Team was investigating a suspected drug manufacturing and sales operation Wednesday when they came upon the lab in the 10600 block of Ellis Street in Fountain Valley. The lab was inside a warehouse.

While they knew there might be something at the location, the size of the operation surprised police. “I don’t think they realized it was going to be this big,” said Sgt. Jon Shaddow of the Buena Park Police Department.

Shaddow said it was the biggest drug lab takedown in recent history for the department. The lab contained about 300,000 pills suspected to be fentanyl, the department said. Other drugs and machines used to make drugs were also found.

Photos released by the Police Department showed Ziploc bags full of orange pills, as well as other bags filled with turquoise and white pills.

The department called in the Orange County Environmental Health Hazardous Materials Team to help them deal with the deadly drugs.

Police arrested the 26-year-old, though they did not release his name, citing the ongoing investigation.

Sources Infobae, CBC, LA Times

Categories: fentanyl, sinaloa cartel