Mexico says US citizens traffic most of the fentanyl across the border

Photo: Twitter/@emoctezumab / Courtesy

The Mexican ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezumaassured this Friday that the vast majority of fentanyl seized at the border is trafficked by US citizens and stressed that the “responsibility” to combat it lies with both countries.

“We are seeing that in 85% of the seizures at the border that the CBP (Customs Office and Border Protection of the United States) has made, those who transport the drug are not migrants, they are American citizens,” he said in a conference in Washington with the US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar.

Moctezuma said that both nations have the responsibility to combat it and vindicated the work that Mexico has done to stop the arrival in its territory of chemicals from Asia used for drug production.

He gave as an example the fact that the Navy is now in charge of the Mexican ports so that “there is greater control”, as well as the letter sent by the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorto his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, asking him for greater collaboration.

“The results are plain to see, that is, there has been a much greater seizure of substances related to the production of methamphetamine and also fentanyl itself, which has come from outside,” he said.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that, according to Washington, is manufactured by Mexican cartels using chemicals from China and trafficked to the United States, where more than 70,000 people died last year from an overdose of this substance.

The Administration of Democrat Joe Biden has assured that Mexico should do more to stop this drug, but López Obrador has questioned whether fentanyl is produced in his country, despite the fact that his government has dismantled hundreds of clandestine laboratories for this substance.

At the press conference, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, explained that fentanyl “is a very difficult problem” for his country, which is why Washington has launched a global coalition against this opioidin which Mexico has joined but China has declined to participate.

“We are working hard against fentanyl and we know that the United States and Mexico have to include the participation of China because the precursors come from there and we are working hard with that,” he said.

The diplomat also claimed that the Biden government has responded to Mexico’s demand to stop US arms trafficking to the Latin American country.

“In terms of arms trafficking we are at a very historic stage. What we are doing has never been done, ”he opined, since the United States has approved a law to consider arms trafficking as a“ serious crime ”.

Keep reading:
– More than $2.5 million worth of fentanyl is seized at the California-Mexico border.
– The US imposed sanctions on a fentanyl network run by members of the Sinaloa Cartel.