<\/p>\n
New York Times\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DNYUZ\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 December 26, 2024<\/p>\n
The cartel operatives came to the homeless encampment carrying syringes filled with their latest fentanyl formula. The offer was simple, according to two men living at the camp in northwest Mexico: up to $30 for anyone willing to inject themselves with the concoction.<\/p>\n
One of the men, Pedro L\u00f3pez Camacho, said he volunteered repeatedly \u2014 at times the operatives were visiting every day. They watched the drug take effect, Mr. L\u00f3pez Camacho said, snapping photos and filming his reaction. He survived, but he said he saw many others who did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it\u2019s really strong, it knocks you out or kills you,\u201d said Mr. L\u00f3pez Camacho of the drugs he and others were given. \u201cThe people here died.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is how far Mexican cartels will go to dominate the fentanyl business.<\/p>\n
Global efforts to crack down on the synthetic opioid have made it harder for these criminal groups to find the chemical compounds they need to produce the drug. The original source, China, has restricted exports of the necessary raw ingredients, pushing the cartels to come up with new and extremely risky ways to maintain fentanyl production and potency.<\/p>\n
The experimentation, members of the cartels say, involves combining the drug with a wider range of additives \u2014 including animal sedatives and other dangerous anesthetics. To test their results, the criminals who make the fentanyl for the cartels, often called cooks, say they inject their experimental mixtures into human subjects as well as rabbits and chickens.<\/p>\n
If the rabbits survive beyond 90 seconds, the drug is deemed too weak to be sold to Americans, according to six cooks and two U.S. Embassy officials who monitor cartel activity. The American officials said that when Mexican law enforcement units have raided fentanyl labs, they have at times found the premises riddled with dead animals used for testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey experiment in the style of Dr. Death,\u201d said Renato Sales, a former national security commissioner in Mexico. \u201cIt\u2019s to see the potency of the substance. Like, \u2018with this they die, with this they don\u2019t, that\u2019s how we calibrate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
To understand how criminal groups have adapted to the crackdown, The New York Times observed fentanyl being made in a lab as well as a safe house, and spent months interviewing several people directly involved in the drug\u2019s production. They included nine cooks, three chemistry students, two high-level operatives and a recruiter working for the Sinaloa Cartel, which the U.S. government blames for fueling the synthetic opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n
The people connected to the cartel spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n
One cook said he recently started mixing fentanyl with an anesthetic often used in oral surgery. Another said the best additive he had found was a sedative for dogs and cats.<\/p>\n
Another cook demonstrated for Times reporters how to produce fentanyl in a cartel safe house in Sinaloa State, in northwest Mexico. He said that if the batch was too weak, he added xylazine, an animal tranquilizer known on the street as \u201cTranq\u201d \u2014 a combination that\u00a0American officials warn can be deadly. \u201cYou inject this into a hen, and if it takes between a minute and a minute and a half to die, that means it came out really good,\u201d the cook said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t die or takes too long to die, we\u2019ll add xylazine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cooks\u2019 accounts align with\u00a0data from the Mexican government\u00a0showing a rise in the use of fentanyl mixed with xylazine and other substances, especially in cities near the U.S. border.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe illicit market gets much more benefit from its substances by cutting them with different things such as xylazine,\u201d said Alexiz Bojorge Estrada, deputy director of Mexico\u2019s mental health and addiction commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou enhance it and therefore need less product,\u201d said Ms. Bojorge, referring to fentanyl, \u201cand you get more profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. drug researchers have also noticed a rise in what one called \u201cweirder and messier\u201d fentanyl. Having tested hundreds of samples in the United States, they found an increase in the variety of chemical compounds in fentanyl on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a wild west of experimentation,\u201d said Caleb Banta-Green, a research professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who helped coordinate the testing of more than\u00a0580 samples of drugs\u00a0sold as fentanyl in Washington State this year.<\/p>\n
He called it \u201cabsolute chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Experiments: The synthetic opioids that reach American streets often begin in cartel labs, where precision is not always a priority, cooks say. They mix up vats of chemicals in rudimentary cook sites, exposing themselves to toxic substances that make some cooks hallucinate, wretch, pass out and even die. The cartels are actively recruiting university chemistry students to work as cooks. One student employed by the cartel revealed that to test their formulas, the group brought in drug users living on the street and injected them with the synthetic opioid. No one has ever died, the student said, but there have been bad batches. \u201cWe\u2019ve had people convulse, or start foaming at the mouth,\u201d the student said.<\/p>\n
Mistakes by cooks were met with severe punishment, she added: Armed men locked the offenders in rooms with rats and snakes and left them there for long stretches with no food or water.<\/p>\n
The cooks and high-level operatives described the Sinaloa Cartel as a decentralized organization, a collection of so many disparate cells that no single leader or faction had complete control over the group\u2019s fentanyl production.<\/p>\n
Some cooks said they wanted to create a standardized product that wouldn\u2019t kill users. Others said they didn\u2019t see the lethality of their product as a problem \u2014 but as a marketing tactic.<\/p>\n
In a U.S. federal indictment against the sons of the notorious drug lord Joaqu\u00edn Loera Guzm\u00e1n (known as El Chapo) who lead a powerful faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, prosecutors said the group sent fentanyl to the United States even after an addict died while testing it in Mexico.<\/p>\n
Instead of scaring people off, cartel members, drug users and experts\u00a0say that many American users\u00a0rush to buy a particularly deadly batch because they know it will get them high.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne dies, and 10 more addicts are born,\u201d said one high-level operative for the cartel. \u201cWe don\u2019t worry about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Boss: The boss knew something was wrong when the hens stopped keeling over. He said he\u2019d been in the drug business since he was 12, when he started apprenticing at a heroin processing site.<\/p>\n
Now a soft-spoken 22-year-old, the boss said he taught himself how to produce illicit drugs by studying the older, more experienced men he worked with. Eventually, he started his own business with a friend.<\/p>\n
The boss said his business grew so fast that soon he was running three fentanyl labs. The drug has made him millions, he said.<\/p>\n
Every time he goes to one of his labs, he said he brings four or five rabbits from the local pet store. If the fentanyl his people make is potent enough, he has to inject and kill only one to be sure it is fit for sale.<\/p>\n
Two pet store employees in Sinaloa, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from cartel members, confirmed that the cheapest rabbits are known to be purchased for drug testing.<\/p>\n
The boss\u2019s other test subjects are hens from a nearby ranch. Many fentanyl cooks test their product on chickens, according to the two U.S. Embassy officials.<\/p>\n
Until recently, the boss said every time he injected the hens with fentanyl they would either die, fall over or stumble around as if they were drunk. All the locals knew not to eat the chickens or the eggs from the ranch.<\/p>\n
But recently, the animals weren\u2019t having a strong reaction to the drug, even though his process hadn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
His employees were logging the same hours at the same modest lab in the mountains, starting at 5 a.m. and sleeping there for days on end. They were working with the same equipment \u2014 laboratory shakers, trays, large containers and a blender to mix up the final product.<\/p>\n
The boss said he eventually concluded that the culprit was a \u201cvery diluted\u201d supply of the chemical ingredients from China. The result was a bunk product. \u201cIt\u2019s too weak,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To fix the problem, the boss first tried combining fentanyl with ketamine, a short-acting anesthetic, but said users didn\u2019t like the bitter taste that came with smoking the mix. It worked much better to add procaine, he said, a local anesthetic often used to numb small areas during dental procedures. When asked whether he felt guilty about producing a drug that causes mass death, the boss said all he was doing was giving his customers what they wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there weren\u2019t all those people in the United States looking to get high, we wouldn\u2019t sell anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s their fault, not ours. We just take advantage of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cook<\/p>\n
One cook we spoke with said he got into the fentanyl business a few years ago to pay off growing debts. At first, the former shop owner regularly got sick from the exposure to the fumes. He said the armed cartel members in charge had no patience for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may throw up at the beginning when you start, and you take a quick break and take some air,\u201d said the cook, but soon enough \u201cone of them will scream at you to get back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
A boss once shot him just because he didn\u2019t answer a question quickly enough, he said, pulling up his shirt to reveal a stomach scar.<\/p>\n
He is constantly experimenting with ways to make fentanyl stronger, tweaking his formula and testing it on his lab assistants, many of whom have become addicted in the process, he said. If the product comes out strong, he passes it on to his supervisors to try.<\/p>\n
The cook said he knows all the improvisation adds up to an unpredictable product. Each batch he makes is different, he said, meaning clients who buy the exact same fentanyl pills may get wildly different doses from week to week.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s never fully disclosed his job to his family, simply saying he\u2019s off to work and then returning weeks later with a lot of cash. He believes the money and the fear evident in his expression deter any questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no retirement here,\u201d the cook said, adding that the cartel would likely kill him for trying to stop. \u201cThere is just work and death.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: https:\/\/dnyuz.com\/2024\/12\/26\/how-mexican-cartels-test-fentanyl-on-vulnerable-people-and-animals\/<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n __<\/p>\n — New York Times\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DNYUZ\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 December 26, 2024 The cartel operatives came to the homeless encampment carrying syringes filled with their latest fentanyl formula. The offer was simple, according to two men living at the camp in northwest Mexico: up to $30 for anyone willing to inject themselves with the concoction. One of the men, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,122,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-violence-prison","category-fentanyl","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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