{"id":9123,"date":"2024-12-04T13:58:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T18:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9123"},"modified":"2024-12-04T13:58:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T18:58:15","slug":"mexican-troops-seize-a-record-fentanyl-haul-days-after-trump-threatened-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9123","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Troops Seize a Record Fentanyl Haul Days After Trump Threatened Tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mexican military and police patrol in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo\/Martin Urista, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mexican soldiers and marines have seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the north, with officials calling it the biggest catch of the synthetic opioid in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The raids came after a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico<\/a><\/span> earlier this year, and days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose<\/a><\/span> 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless those countries cracked down on the flow of migrants and drugs across the border.<\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s top security official said soldiers and marines late Tuesday spotted two men carrying guns in the northern state of Sinaloa, home to the drug cartel of the same name.<\/p>\n

They chased the men, who ran into two houses. In one house soldiers found about 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of fentanyl, and in the other a truck packed with about 1,750 pounds (800 kilograms) of the drug, mostly in pill form.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Sinaloa, we achieved the biggest seizure in history of fentanyl,\u201d Public Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch wrote in his social media accounts. Several guns were also seized and two men were arrested.<\/p>\n

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that \u201cthis is an investigation that had been going on for some time, and yesterday it bore fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that claim contrasts with the seemingly random nature of the bust, which started with a military patrol \u201cnoticed the presence of two men carrying what appeared to be guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, Mexican security forces have sometimes used the story of following armed men running into houses as a pretext to enter homes without search warrants. In at least one case, the government version was disproved by security camera footage.<\/p>\n

The latest haul was striking because fentanyl seizures in Mexico had fallen dramatically in the first half of the year. At some points during the summer, under former President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, federal forces reported seizures amounted to as little as 50 grams (2 ounces) per week.<\/p>\n

Figures for the first half of 2024 show that Mexican federal forces seized only 286 pounds (130 kilograms) of fentanyl nationwide between January and June, down 94% from the 5,135 pounds (2,329 kilograms) seized in 2023.<\/p>\n

The synthetic opioid has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths annually<\/a><\/span> in the United States, and U.S. officials have tried to step up efforts to seize it as it comes over the border, often in the form of counterfeit pills made in Mexico from precursor chemicals largely imported from China<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Obrador always denied that fentanyl is even produced in Mexico, though experts \u2014 and even members of his own administration \u2014 acknowledge that it is.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Also Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced it was increasing the reward for the top leader of another cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, from $10 million to $15 million.<\/p>\n

Oseguera, known by his nickname \u201cEl Mencho,\u201d leads the Jalisco cartel, which like Sinaloa, is heavily involved in the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mexican soldiers and marines have seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the north, with officials calling it the biggest catch of the synthetic opioid in the country\u2019s history. The raids came after a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year, and days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25%…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":9124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/9be9935\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5184x3452+0+2\/resize\/820x546!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F7e%2F74%2F1b9f1d234ee9cfd74e83a11b4b42%2Fe89cfcfb9f8a4af7ae24421d38ac1b1d","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[189],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-borders-commerce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9125,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions\/9125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}