Global Courant
The DOJ last week announced the first prosecutions against Chinese chemical companies and nationals for trafficking chemical precursors used to make fentanyl.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said of the prosecution, “These companies and individuals allegedly knowingly provided drug traffickers in the United States and Mexico with the ingredients and scientific know-how necessary to make fentanyl.”
Nearly 100,000 fatal overdoses of fentanyl – a powerful opioid 50 times stronger than heroin – have been seen in the US in just over a year. Although the substance can usually be found on the streets of almost every US city, mixed with heroin and in counterfeit Oxycontin and Xanax pills, fentanyl is produced far from the US.
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This photo shows the largest seizure of fentanyl pills in California history. (Drug Enforcement Administration/File)
This is a step-by-step roadmap describing the route of fentanyl from China-based factories to the streets of the US following the rise in prices and revenues, starting with a single precursor worth $200 in China to more than $1 million in earnings on the streets of the US
Wuhan, China
The order comes from Sinaloa, Mexico, via a private Telegram chat group. On the other side of the messaging app is an employee of a Chinese company based in Wuhan that says it sells “chemical products for industrial cleaning services,” according to recent research published by think tank Elliptic on risk of financial crime.
The offer is to ship one kilogram of a single precursor called 4-piperidone, a chemical used only to make fentanyl.
Wuhan, China. (Getty Images/File)
“The rest of the progenitors can be easily found or obtained in Mexico or anywhere in the US. The main one is piperidone,” a senior Sinaloa cartel operative told Fox News Digital.
The price invested per kilogram at the moment is $200.
Mazatlan, Mexico
Precursors and ready-to-use fentanyl are shipped through two Mexican Pacific ports: Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan, heavily controlled by the ruthless Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG for the Spanish acronym), and the port of Mazatlan in Sinaloa, controlled by the cartel of the same name.
According to Manelich Castilla, former commissioner of the Mexican Federal Police, it is becoming almost impossible for Mexican authorities to find illegal products in the containers hidden in the containers.
The sons of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman have denied involvement in the production or trade of fentanyl. (AP Photo/Martin Urista/File)
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“To transport fentanyl, you don’t need big shipments. Now you could hide a very profitable load in a trailer container, and it would be almost impossible to find,” Castilla told Fox News Digital.
Once on Mexican soil, the precursors are transported to small, temporary laboratories set up in luxury residential apartments in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa and home of the cartel.
“Here you only need a few hours to make more than 100,000 fentanyl pills,” said the cartel employee.
The Sinaloa cartel’s most popular products are counterfeit “M30” pills, which are small, blue-colored fentanyl pills that are made to look like Oxycontin pills.
The production cost for these pills is about $0.50 and they sell individually in the US for about $5 to $15.
At this point, a kilogram of already pressed fentanyl pills rises to over $3,500.
These drugs were seized in March 2020 from a tunnel under the Otay Mesa area in San Diego, California. (U.S. Border Patrol via AP)
San Diego, California
Once the fentanyl is made into pills or mixed with heroin blocks, the product is packaged to be shipped by truck to cities along the Mexico-US border. The Sinaloa Cartel’s shipments operate as a pool of investors, transporting different products for different drug traffickers within the same organization, the cartel operative said.
“A full truck carries drugs from different individuals. Each of us pays an amount depending on the amount. It is usually $1,500 per kilo, but it includes the bribes to Mexican authorities to get through checkpoints and (elsewhere), the said the operation.
From a Mexican border town like Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez (opposite El Paso, Texas), the fentanyl crosses the border in private vehicles through a regular entry gate.
Cars line up at the San Ysidro crossing port to cross from Tijuana in Mexico to San Diego in the US (Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images/File)
“We pay each mule about $500 per trip, but many products fit on their car. We deliver the car and tell them where to unload on the other side of the border,” the cartel member said.
CBP seized more than 17,000 pounds of fentanyl between October 2022 and April 2023, compared to about 6,600 pounds between October 2021 and April 2022. according to official figures.
The price currently jumps to around $25,000 per kilogram.
the city of New York
The big price hike is happening at what U.S. authorities call “the mills,” small homes or apartments set up in suburbs, far away from where the drug will eventually be sold on the street, according to US authorities.
Here the pills are packaged in smaller quantities or the heroin is mixed with fentanyl mixed with other substances for profit.
Authorities show $7 million worth of fentanyl reportedly found in a New York City apartment. (Office of the Special Narcotics District Attorney for New York City/file)
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“At the point where the pills reach the local dealers, we have no control. They buy the wholesale stuff from us, and they cut it with whatever they can or want, and then they make it their share,” the agent said.
From these ‘mills’, the small, individual packets of pills or heroin are distributed little by little to the larger hubs, cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland or other major cities. The drug begins to hit the streets and is sold at retail price.
The final price is currently over $1 million.
Luis Chaparro is a freelance journalist working on the US-Mexico border, covering criminal organizations in Latin America. He can be followed on Twitter @luiskuryaki
