How Fentanyl Changed the Game for Mexican Drug Cartels

[applegrove]

How Fentanyl Changed the Game for Mexican Drug Cartels

July 25, 2023 at 3:55 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 33 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2023/07/25/how-fentanyl-changed-the-game-for-mexican-drug-cartels/

"SNIP........

Financial Times: “In the last decade, fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for young adults in the US. Mexico’s illegal drug trade has also adapted to the shift from plant-based drugs towards synthetics, creating a new, streamlined and highly profitable arm of the illicit business with fewer workers and lower costs — but just as much violence.”

“The change has caused friction in two of Washington’s most important relationships, with China and Mexico. It is also fast becoming a priority for U.S. Republicans ahead of the country’s 2024 presidential election, with candidates rolling out ever more radical proposals for measures against both nations.”

.......SNIP"

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/americas/2023/07/25/how-fentanyl-changed-the-game-for-mexicos-drug-cartels/

How fentanyl changed the game for Mexico’s drug cartels
In less than a decade, traffickers have created a highly profitable business to feed US demand for the synthetic opioid
Christine Murray in Manzanillo
Tue Jul 25 2023 - 17:14

One Sunday morning in May, after leaving a restaurant in western Mexico, Sergio Emmanuel Martínez, a new customs director at the country’s largest port, was kidnapped.

The next day, he was found dead beside a motorway, making him the fourth customs official at the port of Manzanillo to be murdered in less than two years.

Manzanillo is a bustling centre of global commerce but it is also an entry point for chemicals from China that are used to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Like other Pacific coast hubs, its importance to the drugs business has risen sharply with the fentanyl boom, triggering a violent battle among cartels for control of the port. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Martínez’s death was related to measures taken to stop illegal imports.

“The people that come to work in customs are subject to pressures,” Griselda Martínez, Manzanillo’s mayor, told the Financial Times. “If they accept what one group proposes, they are killed ... and if they don’t accept, they are too.”

....

[applegrove]

2. So sick. US guns too. I'm sure Republicans approve of all the killing.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Trading US guns for Cartel drugs...

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. I don't get how it's more profitable

If you can count on a significant portion of clientele dying.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Depends what you're comparing it to ... it's all a numbers game (nt)

[Ex Lurker]

7. There are always more where they came from.

and the danger appeals to many addicts. If it's that potent, the high must be be potent too.

[Xolodno]

6. It's a bit deeper than that.

With Cannabis becoming legal in several states here and elsewhere in the world, their market share is evaporating. Many cartels have diversified into avocado's, tomatoes, resorts, etc. They know the cash crop of cannabis, their biggest "export" is going to die out. But there is still a small market for hard drugs and its always been a short term customer base as they die off faster, but it is still lucrative for now. So, the cartels most at risk of losing everything are fighting for a small market.

Should we ever decriminalize cocaine and heroin, it's going to be game over for most of them that couldn't adapt.