Mexico seizes 630,000 fentanyl pills in record bust

Mexican authorities this week seized what they say is a record-breaking stockpile of fentanyl pills.

The country’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that “Mexican Army personnel seized a fentanyl pills manufacturing center and the laboratory with the largest methamphetamine production capacity in the municipality of Culiacán, Sinaloa” in northwestern Mexico.

The raid, conducted on Tuesday, found “629,138 pills containing probable fentanyl weighing approximately 68,576 kilograms,” government officials said in the announcement.

The Department of Defense listed other finds made by soldiers in the raid: “Approximately 128.03 kg of possible granulated fentanyl; About 100 kg of possible methamphetamine; About 750 kg probably tartaric acid; Approximately 275 kg of possible mannitol; About 225 kg probably caustic soda; [and] 28 organic synthesis reactors.”

“Due to the number of reactors, the laboratory is the one with the largest synthetic drug production capacity on record in the past and during the current administration,” authorities said in the announcement.

The Department of Defense said that while “conducting intelligence work to strengthen the rule of law in the country and to expose criminal organizations with a presence in this federal entity, military personnel received information about a property and area on the land that was being used as a laboratory for the.” Manufacture of drugs in the municipality of Culiacan, Sin.”

“Derived from the above and operational planning, elements of the Mexican Army conducted ground reconnaissance near Pueblos Unidos, Municipality of Culiacán, Sin., where they located a manufacturing center and a clandestine synthetic drug manufacturing laboratory for which military personnel are implementing a security device has,” the ministry said.

The statement further states: “The insured person was made available to the competent authorities in order to carry out the appropriate examinations and expert measures to confirm the type and quantity of drugs and chemical substances.

These actions were carried out in strict compliance with the rule of law and with full respect for human rights. In this way, the Mexican army reaffirms the federal government’s unalterable decision to continue to fight organized crime and to meet the needs of society; Likewise, it reaffirms its commitment to ensure and protect the well-being of citizens and to ensure the peace and security of the population.”

The historic bankruptcy comes at a time when the United States is also struggling to contain the fentanyl trade within its own borders.

As CBS News noted, Tuesday’s bankruptcy came “on the same day that the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the large number of fentanyl overdoses in the US that occur annually, currently around 70,000.” with the committee’s chairman, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, urging Mexico to increase its efforts to combat the problem.

“This means urging Mexico to do more to prevent the criminal organizations from manufacturing and trafficking fentanyl, although a politicized judiciary and incidents by Mexican security forces working with drug cartels will make that difficult,” the senator said, as of CBS News quoted.

CBS also noted that “Mexican drug cartels make the opioid from precursor chemicals shipped from China and then compress it into pills fake enough to look like Xanax, Percocet, or oxycodone,” and that people often “take the pills take without knowing they contain fentanyl and can suffer fatal overdoses.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than “150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.”