Drug problem? Ok Boomer…
Synthetic compounds have evolved organized crime markets, which traditionally relied on illegal plants. In fact, most of the major revenues [from drug sales] seen by criminal syndicates are using these newly popular compounds. Their product is often cheaper, provides a much stronger high and is easier to produce given the lack of property required (like for Coca or Marijuana) as well as some other benefits to evade law enforcers that we’ll dive into below. As they say, Business is Booming!
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Drug cartels have increasingly made the transition to these chemical compounds in recent years but it’s become a boundless problem on the streets. This is created using a wide variety of mostly sparsely or not well-regulated chemicals, which can be employed at different stages of the process. Synthetic drug laboratories can be very rudimentary, nothing more than a tent and 3 guys in T-shirts or sophisticated Breaking Bad level industrial productions in large amounts. Just like a plant needs a seed, these synthetics need a precursor substance to facilitate the process or the “cook”.
Regulated and un-regulated chemicals can be bought online via the Clearnet and the Dark Web. Most commonly of all, the Chinese sell the precursor drugs necessary to make opiate-compounds and methamphetamine to the Mexican drug cartels. Fentanyl, an opiate-compound is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. It has found its way into Mexico’s growing synthetic drug market already dominated by methamphetamine (another synthetic).
Due to this demand, the online sellers are sometimes extensions of these very large Chinese production companies or sometimes independent individuals or gangs who own chemical conglomerates–everybody wants a piece. Often, the precursors are transported to Mexico via cargo ships or air cargo with random routes. Cargo is said to be mislabeled; camouflaging the contents, purpose, amount of their shipment or placing it with legal product unbeknownst to them.
On the Mexico side, brokers buy to facilitate this trade, filing paperwork, creating fictitious companies, or bribe officials. The chemicals then make their way to small producers throughout not only Mexico, but the entire region (including the United States).
To enhance this process, Chinese scientists are known to be found training the local members on how to cook–Mr. White teaching Jesse Pinkman sticking with the Breaking Bad analogy.
It’s important to note that many shipments, unbeknownst to the shipper, coming directly from China have been tested positive for Fentanyl meaning it can be created in China and shipped directly inside.
The main takeaway I hope to hammer home is that the Chinese Communist Party IS directly responsible (with the Mexican narco organizations) for the abundant drugs hitting US and Canadian markets. China views this as the equivalent of air striking the Anglo-saxons with poisons.
A near 10 year old Drug Enforcement Agency quotes, “China is the primary source of supply for fentanyl and fentanyl precursors destined for the United States, Canada, and Mexico”
The private sector has a relatively significant (and unprecedented) role in the supply chain of precursor chemicals, challenging the traditional paradigm of drug trafficking in Mexico. While plant-based drug markets mostly included large criminal organizations operating in rural areas and employing farmers to cultivate illicit crops, synthetic drug trafficking networks are multi-layered, involve many legal industries, can operate from virtually anywhere, rely heavily on licit supplies, and thus generate an important overlap between the legal and the illegal spheres
Steven Dudley, Insight Crime
From the Mexican drug cartel perspective–it’s moolah. One kilogram of fentanyl costs about $32,000, which can be used to make one million pills with a street value of more than $20 million–hell of a return on your investment. I am not defending their operations but people have to understand they go where there’s money to be made. If that’s hotels, cattle, mangos or meth, (Or lately… THIS. Subscribe for Insider Info!) thats what they’ll seek to gain control over. Many people do miss there is an immense demand from the US side of the border. It’s a two way street of supply and demand; i’ll do a new article on this.
Interestingly, highlighting their motivation for dollar signs is some diplomacy on this front between the cartels themselves. A Mexico’s National Intelligence Centre report found that the two largest Mexican Cartels purchase chemicals from the same chemical companies.
Additionally, in my subscription service, I discuss a dire warning involving both Mexico & the USA that you need to read. People have NO idea what they’re asking for…
From the Chinese perspective–it’s partly moolah too, but there’s a larger geopolitical impact. The Chinese Communist Party watches everything, everyone, at all times. Countless well-documented cases of organ trade, prostitution, human slavery, online scams & IP theft, illegal drug & arms trade occur daily under their watch. It is a country where 1 million citizens go to the doctor a year and don’t come home. It’s naive to assume that this is purely a profit move without any politics. Do not think that because their government officials are on Twitter that they’re any more kind. China views USA like Lex Luthor views Superman. A strong USA to their mind means a weak China and a country built upon narrative & perception does not like this reality. Flooding drugs into the states is nightmarish for the US economy, and China loves it.
Four years ago, China agreed with the USA to ban certain precursor exports, but since then there’s been record levels of fentanyl entering the USA. There is no sign of stopping… Keep reading to find out how serious this has become..
Got any more?
Drug overdose deaths are up 30% year-over-year (2022). This data is startling because look at the years before 2022.
Since 1999, there has 1M reported overdose deaths in the USA
Wow thats a big number. It’s even bigger when you compare it to the Afghanistan war–> “The war led to the deaths of 2,324 U.S. military personnel, 3,917 U.S. contractors and 1,144 allied troops”
Google “streets of Philadelphia compilation”
It’s fucking horrific
In addition to directly killing people (150 per DAY!), it has a more economic and cultural impact, like any other war. You see increases in unemployment, it ensures money will be spent on these substances rather than something productive, it destroys families, it increases crime and local gang activity, drains the treasury via government support (& spending; when debt is ginormous), it reduces travel (by well-intentioned foreigners), reduces morale and self-perception, makes the population unhealthy and more likely to require further pharmaceutical support, among other problems…
According to the CDC, over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Yesterday, USBP agents in Nogales and Willcox, AZ interdicted 2 smuggling loads consisting of over 304 lbs. of fentanyl worth over $1.9M.
The problem has gotten so bad in Canada that the government just said, “Fuck it, let’s make everything legal so it doesn’t seem as bad”
The Government of British Columbia has authorized a policy where a ‘safer supply’ of fentanyl can be provided to minors without permission from their parents. Providing ‘safer supply’ drugs is not a new concept in BC, as the province has been providing fentanyl to its residents since 2020. Youth across the province will now be able to access taxpayer-funded recreational fentanyl without their parents even knowing. There is no minimum age cited for providing minors with the controversial drug
The toxic drug crisis is killing an average of 21 people every day in Canada. Fentanyl is involved in the vast majority of those deaths.
Q4 2023
The Problem is international
From Sara Garcia with Insight crime, “Between 9,000 and 10,000 dead bodies arrive at Mexicali’s [morgue] each year. Causes of death include suicide, homicide, and unfortunate accidents. But, more recently, an increasing number of bodies have begun to arrive that show the same range of characteristics: death due to respiratory or cardiorespiratory arrest, blue or purple coloration of the body, and, in many cases, syringes still stuck into the person’s arm or leg.”
In Mexicali, a border town with the US, a random survey of dead bodies from June to August in 2022 showed that 1 in 3 of them tested positive for fentanyl.
An attorney from the Bureau Specializing in Organized Crime (Jurisdicción Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada) said that these seizures are evidence of “an exponential increase in the use of fentanyl” in Costa Rica.
Chinese chemical companies have even spread out to India who manufacture the requisite compounds who then ship to the Pacific side of Mexico. If you see shipments from India or other parts of Asia, it will be true–but China is the mastermind.
A Strike That is Hard to Deal With
Three different markets exist that allow these drugs to hit the market: precursors, pre-precursors and essential chemicals. Each one faces a different regulatory regime, putting strain on a slightly different part of global and local regulatory systems–these chemicals do have legitimate usages not applicable to the drug making process so they are difficult to regulate. This means there is not a one-size-fits-all solution but a multi-layered, broad approach toward mitigating its impact which is going to disturb other legitimate industries in the economy.
As a result, there lacks of a unified, international legal framework to deal with the shipment of these compounds. Any lack of cooperation between nations or policing resources (which is not uncommon throughout Latin America) mean these efforts are largely feckless. Destroying the entire supply chain to the United States is a “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” type scenario that no politician wants to see happen on their watch.
The previous ban was aimed at stopping Chinese manufacturers from exploiting a loophole that allowed them to change the molecular structure of the drug in such a way that it was not explicitly banned. “Organized crime groups have effectively circumvented initial controls by … basically creating new yet-to-be-controlled versions,”
UN expert
It’s been suggested that rather than try to hit a camouflaged target, it’s better to focus on the demand side of the equation which pertains to the cooking and initial shipments (to whom) once the drug is produced, in targeted attacks.
The Nature of the Problem
Aside from the everyday usage of the precursor compounds, the concentrated potency of fentanyl and correspondingly tiny amounts required by consumers makes effective controls of its precursors and of the drug itself next to impossible. It’s estimated that shippers send upwards of 95 percent of adulterants and additives across heavily policed borders; partly due to the ownership of the police and also due to the ability to move significant product in a smaller package size.
Fentanyl is especially dangerous due to this high level of potency. There have been reports of police officers handling drug users and feeling the dramatic effects simply by touching the sweat/skin of the drug user subject. Want to know the scary part? It is nearly impossible to tell if drugs have been laced with fentanyl unless you test your drugs with fentanyl test strips.
Easy to make
Criminal researchers have deduced that a sizeable amount of fentanyl is produced in Mexico. Mexican “cooks” appear to synthesize fentanyl using precursors and pre-precursors that require only a few, relatively simple steps that can easily be replicated without a Chemistry degree. Chinese scientists do a lesson & thats it.
Wake Up, You’re Not in Peacetime
The message I want to provide is that people are doing themselves a disservice by thinking of warfare in the traditional sense like in Iraq, Vietnam or World War 2. Warfare has evolved; the approaches are no longer just dropping bombs, kicking in doors and throwing grenades. They are more sophisticated and appear to be more subtle or innocent. They are psychological, chemical and informational, in this way they can go undetected and flourish beyond ones’ control.
The problem has been allowed to manifest to reach an international scale and impact all ages. Unfortunately, every year is worse than the previous year. The nature of the chemistry, the laws and extreme potency of the drug make it extremely difficult to police. To put fuel on the fire, more and more youth show heightened levels of depression, insecurity, lack of purpose, & general inadequate feelings in this tough economy. They are turning more and more to drugs as a sudden fix which is proving a perfect set up for some.
What you’re reading is a beautiful tool of destabilization and chaos. It causes pure mayhem, and yet nobody stops to question it nor the initiator of such mayhem.
Don’t be fooled
With respect to the coverage of these toxic chemicals, there is a lot of media attention blaming Mexican drug cartels without seeing the full picture. The full picture is that drug cartels are in it for the money (regardless who it kills) whereas China is in it for the utter destruction of the United States of America & beyond. Militarily, I fear the USA may aim South of the border to witness untold destruction at home. As it stands, the USA just needs to breath on China (with their impending debt collapse) and the chemical warfare attacks may come down from their high.
Regardless where the fault lies, the reality is that the United States are the primary target of this act of chemical warfare. This is not a small domestic problem within communities like crack cocaine in the 90s–this is a systemic problem killing off huge piles of citizens far outpacing 20-year wars in the Middle East against blood-thirsty terrorists. It is fundamentally destroying the cities, cultural attitudes and slowly but surely, already a precarious economy. That is why its important to call the problem out honestly.
One may argue that it is fuelled by a sickness coming from within the West which may be true–but no doubt it is being pushed a long by the use of these chemicals–the snake encouraging a taste of the apple, if you will.
I believe the solution is to fund operations to aim to seize the Chinese shipments to form a chokehold on the product ever piercing into the United States & Mexico, even if this greatly impedes doing any trade with China. As the saying goes, drastic times call for drastic measures.
Closing
Due to the complex nature of the problem, it is a perfect weapon to poison the world while producing huge profit incentives. The number of deaths, particular in the USA and Canada are exceeding numbers commonly seen in wartime–and yet we do not consider this to be an act of war. If we are in fact in such a war, it is best to first and foremost know who you are fighting.
Please share to spread the importance of this problem & with any luck, save some lives!
#StayOnTheBall
