This investigative series looks at the role that Mexico and its cartels have played in making the lethal opioid fentanyl a growing threat in the United States. While China accounts for the overwhelming majority of fentanyl production, Mexican gangs have also become key links in this chain, transporting, selling, and even producing the drug. Here we examine the rise of fentanyl, from production facilities in China and Mexico, to the potential role of the Sinaloa Cartel and numerous subcontractors.
Mexico's Role in the Deadly Rise of Fentanyl
FENTANYL
/
19 FEB 2019
Chapter 1
Fentanyl: Summary and Major Findings
DRUG POLICY
/
12 FEB 2019
Since surging into the market in 2013, fentanyl has become the most lethal category of opioid in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that…
Chapter 2
Fentanyl Case Shows China's Scary Ability to Adapt
CHINA AND CRIME
/
12 FEB 2019
In October 2017, two Chinese men—Xiaobing Yan and Jian Zhang—were indicted for conspiring to manufacture and distribute “large quantities” of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs in the United States. Although they…
Chapter 3
A Sinaloa Connection in Buffalo, New York?
DRUG POLICY
/
13 FEB 2019
The sea cucumber arrived. Then more arrived. Then more. It was a lot, investigators noted—too much for that northwestern corner of New York state. The shipments were, US prosecutors would…
Chapter 4
Bulgarian Biochemist in Mexico Gives Glimpse of the Future
DRUG POLICY
/
14 FEB 2019
In January 2018, US authorities began following a Bulgarian biochemist named Antov Petrov Kulkin who they believed was running a small carfentanil/fentanyl laboratory in Mexico. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, has…
Chapter 5
End of Heroin is Bad News for US Fentanyl Hotbeds
DRUG POLICY
/
15 FEB 2019
On October 22, 2018, authorities pulled over a Dominican national identifying himself as Angel Javier Morell-Oneill as he drove in Methuen, Massachusetts. They had been investigating him since June 2018,…
Chapter 6
The Fentanyl Trade Through Mexico, Explained in 8 Graphs
FENTANYL
/
19 FEB 2019
Fentanyl use is booming in the United States. With support from the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, InSight Crime mapped the distribution chain, and the role of Mexico's…
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