Mexico has announced it’s largest-ever seizure of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, as US pressure intensified on the country to crack down on the drug trafficking into the United States.
In a statement on Wednesday, Omar Garcia Harfuch, Mexico’s secretary of security and citizen protection, said that the halt came after authorities took “separate actions” in the coastal state of Sinaloa.
“In Sinaloa, the largest historical seizure of fentanyl was achieved,” Garcia Harfuch explained, saying that “more than a tonne of fentanyl pills” were intercepted.
Both of these actions are seen as an effort to appease the incoming US government headed by President-elect Donald Trump.
The US administration has threatened to slap an arduous 25 per cent tariff hike on the goods imported from both Mexico and Canada unless both nations take actions to clamp down on drug trafficking and immigration across their shared border with the US.
Violence in Sinaloa is also a determinant. Since the capture of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a Sinaloa Cartel kingpin, in the US, rival factions have been seeking to fill the power vacuum left in his absence.
Speaking to the reporters, Saucedo explained that the authorities ultimately need to address the causes of the fentanyl trade for the trafficking to stop.
The US authorities are struggling to contain fentanyl abuse; according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 80,000 people died of opioid overdoses (mostly fentanyl) in 2023.
“It’s a very big seizure. “But if they don’t dismantle the labs, this kind of production will continue,” Saucedo said.
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