Mexico: Military Finds 1.8 Million Fentanyl Pills in Tijuana

The Mexican Department of Defense announced on Thursday that Mexican soldiers found over 1.83 million fentanyl pills in Tijuana. They were reportedly hidden inside a stash house in the border city.

According to the Associated Press, Mexican authorities staked out the house on Sunday after they received a tip that it was being used for drug trafficking activities. When they finally received a search warrant, they raided the home and found not only fentanyl, which is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, but also meth.

Tijuana is usually used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle these illegal substances from Mexico into the United States. This was described as one of the largest fentanyl seizures in Mexico in recent months.

According to Turkey's AA News, in 2022 alone, the United States reported over 105,000 fentanyl overdose-related deaths, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that over 150 people die every day in the U.S. from overdoses related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

Tijuana Fentanyl Raid Comes Days After President AMLO Claimed Fentanyl Is Not Produced in Mexico

The Tijuana raid was timely as it came just a few days after Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, claimed that Mexico had no part in the U.S. fentanyl crisis, claiming that these synthetic opioids were not manufactured in his country. The Mexican president claimed that fentanyl is a U.S. problem and not Mexico's.

"And we are very sorry for what is happening in the United States, but why don't they deal with the problem? Why don't they combat the distribution of fentanyl in the United States, the cartels in the United States that are in charge of distributing fentanyl, and more thoroughly?" said AMLO as he responded to Republicans who have been calling for strikes on Mexican soil that would target cartels manufacturing fentanyl.

The president's claims are somehow disproven by the various raids by the Mexican military that resulted in the confiscation of millions of fentanyl pills across the country, including this latest one in Tijuana.

Mexican authorities also reported that they confiscated 280 kilograms of fentanyl and 720 kilograms of controlled medications in the stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel, Sinaloa state. It was inside a tractor-trailer heading to Ciudad Obregon in Sonora state. Another shipment of 354,000 fentanyl pills and 2.7 kilograms of pure fentanyl were also seized in Sinaloa.

Several Mexican Pharmacies Reportedly Selling Pills Laced with Fentanyl

U.S. tourists often travel to Mexico because the country has better healthcare and because the medicines there are cheaper. However, NPR is reporting that some Mexican pharmacies that cater to these tourists are selling fake pills that appear safe but are actually laced with deadly fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Researchers from the UCLA School of Medicine found that medications purchased legally in four cities in northern Mexico may have fentanyl or meth in them. One of the researchers, Chelsea Shover, stated, "For pills sold as oxycodone, we tested 27 and found 10 or 11 of them contained either fentanyl or heroin." She pointed out that some of these medications being sold in Mexican cities place unsuspecting people at risk.

"Similar products are available at a much lower price in Mexico, so Americans do travel to save money," she said.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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