According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency, criminals are exporting synthetic opioids from China to Mexico, where they are made into fentanyl. The fentanyl is then smuggled into the United States.
Mexico says it will provide China with evidence that illegal shipments of fentanyl have been shipped from the country to Mexican drug cartels, Mexico’s president said Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday.
The Chinese government has denied the allegations of smuggling.
A synthetic opioid allegedly causing hundreds of overdose deaths in the United States every day was found in a container recently shipped from China to Mexico, the president said.
– We already have the evidence, said López Obrador.
In March, the President of Mexico wrote to the President of China to Xi Jinping and asked for help in stopping the flows of fentanyl.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded that there is no illegal trade in fentanyl between the two countries.
Mexico asks China to notify it when contraband leaves Chinese ports, López Obrador said. He added that Mexico is also asking China to seize the shipments if possible.
Mexico is under pressure to stop the fentanyl trade of drug cartels
According to the US drug agency DEA, criminal groups export chemicals from China to Mexico, where they are made into fentanyl, which is smuggled into the United States across the border.
Mexico, in turn, denies that fentanyl is manufactured on its territory.
The Mexican president’s plea follows calls from U.S. Republican senators to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and even send troops to fight them.
Last month, the US Department of Justice imposed sanctions on two Chinese companies for allegedly selling chemicals to the notorious Sinaloa cartel to make fentanyl.
Source: AFP