The chemical precursors arrive from China through ships with large containers.They are thrown into the sea to be picked up by members of organized crime.It is the story of the enormous fentanyl business told by its cooks.
The trafficking route of illegal chemical precursors to produce fentanyl in Mexico begins in the port of Shanghai, China.Drums with these chemicals are hidden in merchandise shipped legally on container ships.Once the ship reaches the Mexican coast of the Pacific Ocean, the chemicals are tied with ropes and a satellite location system is placed on them.They are then thrown into the open sea and collected by fishermen who travel in pangas. Fenyl
“The GPS is so that the fishermen can locate them quickly, and once they have the precursors in their possession, they take them to an island where we have a clandestine track, and depending on the presence of the government, they bury (the drums) or pile them up to, At the first opportunity, a small plane will pick them up and bring them closer to the coast or the city,” explains a drug trafficker in charge of coordinating the arrival of precursors, and who said he worked for the Sinaloa Cartel.
As could be seen during access granted to this reporter and the British media Sky News, to move the drugs safely the cartel constantly monitors elements of the Navy and the Army.They maintain a network of young monitors, called “punteros,” who follow them wherever they move while reporting via walkie talkie radios.
For example, if the sailors go to where there will be a drug movement, in this case precursors, the entire criminal structure is stopped for as long as necessary, even days.But once it is notified that they have moved to other areas, traffic restarts.
During this trip through the waters and lands of Sinaloa, the precursor coordinator is notified by radio that the plane containing the chemicals has already left, and that we can get on our way to begin documenting the shipment.
The people who will pick up the precursors quickly get into their pangas and the route begins towards an unknown place in the open sea.The cameraman is asked not to record any reference points, only the sky, the sea and the panga that sails through the waters.
The boat ride is just over half an hour.Upon reaching the point you can see the drums lined up on an island.The boat approaches to collect the material and transport it to dry land.
Precision is essential for them.The fishermen do not stop communicating with the “pointers” by radio to find out the status of the return route.One of the heads of the criminal structure clarifies to journalists that, if sailors appear unexpectedly during the return, they will flee at full speed in their pangas and will leave us to our fate wherever this happens.The risk is imminent, but it is accepted.The report from the ground is that there is nothing to be alarmed about.
You advance through canals surrounded by mangroves.On this occasion, the plan worked well for the drug traffickers: the precursors, valued at millions of pesos, arrived on dry land without any setbacks.
The panga stops and, in an operation of minutes, the fishermen lower the drums of precursors and load them into a truck that will take them to a safe house in Culiacán, the state capital.
“It cannot be said exactly where this delivery is made, nor the closest port on the island, what I can say is that there are many people making sure everything is fine, and informing us that there is no government nearby,” said the drug trafficker, a man who is around 35 years old and who for reasons of his safety asked that his name and nickname not be revealed.
It is true that a good part of the precursors come from the city of Shijiazhuang, China, says the drug trafficker who allowed us access, but there is also a smaller percentage from Russia, Australia, Malaysia, Qatar and Iraq.He recognizes that in recent months the transfer has become much more complicated, since the governments of the United States and Mexico have begun a strong hunt against those who traffic and produce fentanyl.
Patrols and the use of drones have not stopped.
“Now, if I bring a ton of fentanyl into the United States, the Mexican government must detain three tons to verify that it is controlling the traffic,” he declares.
The cartel operator emphasizes that fentanyl “has always existed,” but that it began to gain relevance approximately six years ago, to the extent that it displaced heroin, known as “chiva de flor.”
“Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than chiva de flor, and it sold more because it is more addictive, it yielded more, it was stronger, but it was also more lethal, and that is why everything is more tense with the government,” he explains during the conversation that the criminal had with this reporter.
That tension has not prevented precursors from continuing to arrive from China, but it has encouraged their transportation through maritime routes.
Many of the precursors are still buried on small islands off the coast of Sinaloa.
“Little by little we are bringing the precursors, so every time we go we try to bring as much as we can,” he acknowledges.
The precursors are taken to a safe house waiting for the chefs to buy them to sell the product to the big bosses of the cartel, or to be used directly by the leaders of the structure.
“It costs us two thousand dollars to produce a kilo, but here we can sell it for three thousand 500, sometimes for four thousand;That same kilo in Tijuana is resold for seven thousand dollars.But if one manages to get it to Los Angeles, you resell it there for 12 thousand dollars.But if the client is in New York, they pay you $35,000 there,” says a fentanyl cook, who said he bought the recipe to cook the drug for $50,000.
The young man explains that they cooked white heroin made with opium, but because the market was leaning towards synthetic drugs, they had to adapt to market demand.And, in an effort to offer what was asked of him, he ended up buying the prescription, which included an explanation on how to handle fentanyl, and how to protect himself from the chemical.
The talk is achieved thanks to the direct order of one of the bosses.He arranges that they allow us to document the production of fentanyl in a clandestine kitchen that is in the middle of the mountains in Sinaloa.The cook, not very convinced, agrees to take us to the place, always questioning if we are undercover agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) or if we are really journalists.
The doubt remains as long as we are with him, and no explanation matters that destroys that idea.The cook's disbelief continues, but given the order to serve us from his boss, he has no choice.
We arrive at a hut with a black tin and wood roof that is covered with dirt, leaves and stones at the back to make it difficult to see from the sky.In this place the two cooks begin to prepare the utensils to cook the drug.
One of them runs several meters from the hut and, with a shovel, begins to dig.
Discover a half-buried 200-liter tank where they store the precursors and other ingredients with which they cook fentanyl.
While extracting bottles and bags of powder, the cook explains that the fentanyl they deliver is pure, that is, it does not contain any cuts nor is it diluted with other substances.He adds that those who carry out this last process are sellers on the streets of the United States who cut the drug up to 10 times.
“You just cook it, but those who manipulate it and cut it or leave it very strong are the vendors on the streets of the United States.The gringos never say that nor do you ever hear that they catch those who sell it on the streets, and they blame us for killing people," says the young man interviewed before Operation Last Mile was made known. which involved the arrest of fentanyl sellers on the streets of the United States associated with the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.
Once they have the precursors and other ingredients in their possession, the two cooks begin to prepare to avoid, or at least minimize, possible poisoning, which in most cases is fatal.Thick long-sleeved shirt, face covered with a mask with transparent acrylic on the front and two breathing valves, as well as gloves and a thick plastic apron that covers their body.
Only then do both cooks prepare to mix the precursors that have crossed the ocean clandestinely.
Using industrial mixers that they hold with both hands, one of them begins to mix the chemicals they buy in Mexico, such as acetate and bromomethyl, with the precursors from China, particularly one that they referred to as “propionyl,” which It is actually Propionyl Chloride, a controlled substance since 2021, as part of the fight against illegal fentanyl.
Thus, among vapors capable of intoxicating a hundred people at the same time, the first of three phases begins to produce the synthetic drug.At the request of the two cooks who are not over 25 years old, it is agreed to maintain a cautious distance so as not to intervene in the production of the drug, which must be at least two meters.From that distance, however, the gases can be seen rising and running in all directions.
The mixer motor is heard and both cooks are careful not to waste a single drop of the precursor.It's money.The attitude makes sense: they buy propionyl for 7 thousand pesos per liter.Without this ingredient it is impossible to produce the drug.But it is also mixed with an ingredient known to them as “79”, another precursor that also comes from China and for which they pay 500 dollars per kilo, to finally add a last chemical known as “Boc 22”, also trafficked from China. .
"There are three phases: the first in which the cookie is made and that is when the amount of propionyl to be used is measured and how it is going to be mixed with acetone and water to achieve a chemical reaction, then the '79' is added. , which causes a more solid mixture.Then they transfer the drug to another container, where they squeeze it with a white blanket to continue with the last step, which is to add heat so that the chemical reaction is completed and the fentanyl is ready,” explains one of the cooks, always jealous of his recipe. .
What remains is to place the product in a flat saucepan and put it under the sun for about two hours so that the fentanyl dries and is ready to be taken to a new location.
The pieces, which look like plaster stones, are liquefied until they become a very fine white powder.It is then weighed and packed.
From that point on, the owner of the drug can sell it as is or continue a new process: taking the fentanyl and mixing it with other ingredients, including sugar, to produce M-30 pills.
The poisoning of fentanyl cooks in Culiacán has increased in recent months, according to the cooks of that drug themselves, and is occurring because those who cook fentanyl do not take the necessary measures to avoid breathing the gases when they prepare it, either because They become overconfident and take off their masks prematurely, or because they handle drugs without the proper suits.
This information was corroborated by the manager of a pharmacy located near the Culiacán General Hospital, where they treat people intoxicated by overdoses.They sell at least five packages of the drug naloxone a week.
Naloxone reverses opioid overdoses, including heroin, fentanyl, and other prescription drugs.It is used in the United States and Canada.
“When a person starts having trouble breathing, or feels like they are fainting, or really wants to vomit, we already know that they are intoxicated, and we quickly take them to the hospital because if not, they could leave us,” says a chef. .
This explains a statement by the Secretary of the Navy, Admiral José Rafael Ojeda Durán, who during the presidential conference on May 4 tried to discredit journalistic access for the preparation of the Sky News report.
Ojeda Durán insisted that the kitchen seen on the English channel, which is the same access for this report, was not fentanyl.One of the elements that he highlighted is the lack of care of the cooks.However, the reality is that those who prepare the drug do not have adequate training to handle the chemicals and many of them die in the process.
“Yes, we have known that cooks have died when they cook, because they breathe the gases or due to carelessness, but I couldn't tell you how many,” says another cook when questioned about the danger of producing this drug.
DOLLARS costs per kilo of fentanyl placed in Los Angeles.In New York it is more expensive.
It costs DOLLARS to produce a kilo.The price increases the closer you get to the border.
"They don't happen here, but everything else does... maybe the people who report to the president aren't telling him the truth."FENTANYL COOK
The increase coincides with the hardening of the United States against the Sinaloa Cartel;In the first five months of the year, 59 overdoses have been recorded.
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