One of the largest Mexican drug cartels has ordered its “cooks” to stop making fentanyl after US president Donald Trump labelled them a terrorist group.
Sinaloa Cartel operators were instructed to immediately suspend production of the synthetic drug after bosses made the order, concerned that any identification the drugs came from them would pin them as terrorists in the US. An investigation by Mexican TV news show Nmás found no staff and at a fentanyl factory, with supplies including, chemical bottles with residue, scales, gas masks, and dust-covered overalls all left behind. Drums containing precursor residue were also found.
The news outlet interviewed former cooks who explained that everything was dismantled to avoid the cartel being tracked. One worker said: “We’ve practically destroyed everything. Working is now completely prohibited… All you do is hunker down, hide, and try to sell the few things you have left to survive. If the government doesn’t take you down, the other one will.”
The White House’s war on cartels began on the first day of President Trump’s second term in office on January 20, when he announced he would be designating eight cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations”.
Those from Mexico, including the dominant Sinaloa Cartel and the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, account for six of them, they are widely blamed for the drug epidemic in America.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, nearly 75,000 Americans died in 2023 from overdose of an opioid like fentanyl, much of it coming across the Mexico border. Experts said the designation would allow counterterrorism measures to be employed in the fight against drugs, and allow America officials to go after cartel money.
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