LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
Police seizure of 42 kg of fentanyl in Alameda County, California on December 20, 2022. HANDOUT / ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE / AFP
Gloria Chavez, chief of border police in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, had reason to celebrate on December 2, 2022. Her agents had just discovered a shipment of drugs – fentanyl – hidden in liquid form in a car’s gas tank. “This lethal amount would be enough to kill a population of 5.665 million, which is two and a half times the size of Houston! ‘ she wrote on Twitter. Behind this timely and legitimate satisfaction lies a national catastrophe. It affects chic neighborhoods as well as the poorest, urban areas as well as remote corners of the country.
In the United States, on average, one person dies every seven minutes as a result of exposure to fentanyl. Originally developed to relieve cancer patients, this cheap designer drug is fifty times more deadly than heroin and a hundred times more deadly than morphine. It is distributed in all forms: liquid, powder, tablets. Since the summer of 2022, the anti-drug police (Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA) has warned against marketing it in a multicolored version to seduce a younger and naïve audience. Last year, the DEA seized nearly 379 million doses of fentanyl, an all-time high.
A total of 107,622 drug-related deaths were recorded in 2021, according to health officials, 66% of which were linked to fentanyl. The main importers are two rival Mexican criminal networks, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Next Generation Jalisco Cartel, one of the five most dangerous organizations in the world according to the US Department of Justice.
Before the United States was flooded, these groups no longer had to maintain plantations or rely on good weather, as with marijuana or opium. They acquire the chemical components in China and then manufacture the pills in their secret laboratories. Cross-border transport requires a uniform approach. As for concealment, it’s a matter of boldness and ingenuity: these pills have notably been found in Lego boxes or coconuts. Selling price varies by location but is generally in free fall due to the supply explosion.
Biden administration charged with criminal negligence
In a remarkable multi-part investigation, the Washington Post recently chronicled this entire journey. The daily highlighted the major mistakes made by successive governments. “The Department of Homeland Security, whose agencies are responsible for detecting illicit drugs at national borders, has failed to step up scanning and inspection technologies at official crossings, instead spending $11 billion [10,3 milliards d’euros] building a border wall that does little to stop fentanyl traffickers,” the newspaper said on December 12, 2022.
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