Let's say thumbs up to courageous Mexican reporters who are publishing stories about fentanyl. I mean courageous because investigative journalism may be hazardous, as we've posted before.

This is the story, via Kelin Dillon:    

While Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has been staunch in his stance that fentanyl -- the illicit and often deadly drug exacerbating the ongoing U.S. opioid crisis -- is not produced in Mexico, experts say mounting evidence to the contrary may inflame the already heightened tensions over fentanyl between the United States and Mexico.

On Sunday, May 14, an exposé conducted by Mexican daily newspaper El Universal and journalist Miguel Angel Vega revealed details behind the production of fentanyl in Mexico, particularly manufacturing conducted by the notorious drug-trafficking group Sinaloa Cartel.

According to Vega’s report, the chemicals used to produce fentanyl are allegedly shipped out to Mexico via Shanghai, China, inside drums on commercial cargo ships, which are later dumped overboard into the ocean off Mexico’s Pacific coast with a GPS device attached. The material-filled drums are then purportedly retrieved from the sea by local fisherman, who go on to move the drums to nearby islands to ultimately be trafficked into Mexico by the cartel’s fleet of small planes and then produced into fentanyl, a Sinaloa Cartel member told Vega.

The exposé, which also included photographic proof of the fentanyl-production process inside Mexico, went on to reveal the cartel’s clear financial motivations behind the substance’s manufacturing: While a kilo of fentanyl only costs the drug-trafficking organization approximately $2,000 to make, the cartel can go on to flip that very same kilo of fentanyl for $12,000 in Los Angeles or $35,000 in New York City.

Thank you, Kelin, for sharing Mr. Vega's report. What will President AMLO say in his morning press conference? I'm anxious to hear his response.   

There are two problems here:

First, fentanyl is killing young people in the U.S.  The high schools around here are on a wartime footing because the drug is among us.  This is a story that we hear way too much:  "R.L. Turner student becomes 'unresponsive' after ingesting possible fentanyl pill." A few days ago, a family friend who works at a middle school (6th grade) related the story of a young girl who collapsed going from one class to the other.  She survived but it was scary.

Second, this information about China does not help U.S.-Mexico relations. Of course, I have zero confidence that Biden will put his foot down and demand something from the one that they call AMLO, the President of Mexico.  

Maybe we need to declare the cartels a terrorist organization and fire up the F-15s.  It's a short flight!

P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

Image: RawPixel.com