Mica for cartelinsider.com
Fentanyl has caused a health crisis in the United States, a country that formally charged Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada for trafficking fentanyl, adding to the five previous accusations against the man for whom there is a $15 million reward, as he is the suspected leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“Zambada García is accused of numerous drug-related crimes, now including the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, the deadly drug that was largely unknown when he founded the Sinaloa Cartel over three decades ago and is now responsible for immeasurable harm,” reads the report from the indictment of a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
According to information derived from US judicial records, the Los Chapitos faction (led by the sons of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán) is the one that would have started with the production and distribution of the opioid.
In documents published by the Department of State, it can be read that around the year 2014 is when the activities related to this opioid would have begun by the criminal group. Intelligence work indicates that Los Chapitos would have initiated in a laboratory in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
The precursors were stored in warehouses and later, when the substance was finished, they were sent to Tijuana to cross the border. Once in US territory, Ovidio Guzmán’s accomplices (who was in charge of supervising the distribution of the drugs, according to investigations) were responsible for hiding the drugs.
The previous information coincides with what was expressed by Dámaso López Serrano, also known as Mini Lic, in an interview with journalist Anabel Hernández published in the media outlet Milenio.
According to the 36-year-old man’s statement to the journalist, the Sinaloa Cartel began producing fentanyl in late 2014 due to the criminal group obtaining information that other organized crime groups operating in Michoacán and Jalisco were involved in a drug that was generating significant profits for them.
“Synthetic heroin” or “synthetic goat” were the names by which the mentioned drug was known, but it was actually fentanyl. In other actions, the Department of State stated that a man with the alias El 27 is a member of the criminal group and who would have carried out experiments with the opioid.
In early October 2023, in Culiacán, messages supposedly signed by the Sinaloa Cartel were found, mentioning a presumed ban on the opioid. After the first messages were found, new ones appeared, showing names of other criminal cells.
In light of these actions, there were even reports, such as those from journalist Óscar Balderas, about reprisals against those who continued to work with the opioid. However, according to former agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Derek Maltz, the supposed ban on fentanyl was actually a propaganda strategy.
“There is no evidence that these men have stopped,” stated Maltz in October of last year. Meanwhile, for the DEA, the criminal group remains an important player in the trafficking of fentanyl into US territory.
“Fentanyl is the most deadly drug threat that Americans have ever faced, and the Sinaloa Cartel remains the largest trafficker of fentanyl to the United States,” stated the DEA official in the report on the charges against El Mayo Zambada.
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Mica
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