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Fentanyl

Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel, known for its jailed kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is betting on fentanyl to boost its market value in the U.S. after its powerful cocaine empire, a report said.

The Sinaloa cartel had been a huge distributor of cocaine in the U.S. but chose to shift to the new, more powerful drug in response to changing demands in the U.S., reported Business Insider.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic. U.S. authorities say it is 50 to 100 times more potent, like morphine.

Business Insider was able to have access to the Sinaloa cartel's fentanyl laboratory in the Sinaloa state on Mexico's Pacific coast.

Going to Sinaloa Cartel's Lab Comes with a Long Ride

The cartel's laboratory was an improvised location outside of Culiacán, Sinaloa's capital city. The report said that going to the lab involved a highway drive, a shift to an off-road pickup truck, and a short walk into a dry forest. The trip ended in a tent with a huge cooking pot, a homemade press, and laboratory tools. 

Read also: Mexican President Accuses U.S. of 'Fabricating' Drug Charges vs. Ex-Army Chief Salvador Cienfuegos

According to the report, there were five men in the laboratory: a cook, three helpers, and an armed lookout in charge of the two-way radio communications. All of them were dressed in camouflage uniforms.

The Sinaloa cartel had fentanyl and heroin labs since 2019 after it decided to drop its marijuana and poppy crops in order to meet the new demands.

"Our client base at the other side [of the border] don't want the old black chiva anymore," a cartel member from the illegal lab said. He added that American drug users "got used to a super powerful heroin boosted with fentanyl."

He noted that American users demanded the fentanyl-boosted heroin about six years ago, but they didn't get the order and recipes to make it until later on. The cartel appeared to have learned the recipe from "a Chinese man," who is "the only one who knows the recipe."

"But many started dying because we still didn't have the right recipe, and some of them were not aware of the potency of the new product," the member added.

In 2018 alone, more than 30,000 people have overdosed with fentanyl in the U.S., the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. Fentanyl-boosted heroin was one of the reasons why the Sinaloa cartel managed to thrive in the relatively new business.

Sinaloa Cartel Linked Drug Trafficker Pleads Guilty

A mastermind to an extensive drug trafficking ring linked to the cartel pleaded guilty this week after he was found to have operated continuing criminal enterprises in the U.S. He was involved in drug trafficking operations in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, and California, said a report from KTLA.

Related story: 19 Burned Bodies Found Near US-Mexico Border in Suspected Cartel Violence

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Ramiro Ramirez-Barreto, 44, from the Mexican state of Morelos, was linked to the cartel, as were his drug sources. He was said to have supplied cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl to numerous organizations.

The four other defendants arrested during the investigation, dubbed "Operation Cookout," pleaded guilty or were sentenced over the past week for their involvement in the illegal operations.