{"id":1511121,"date":"2025-01-01T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1511121"},"modified":"2025-01-01T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T18:10:00","slug":"how-africa-became-a-key-link-for-mexican-cartels-in-fentanyl-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-africa-became-a-key-link-for-mexican-cartels-in-fentanyl-production\/1511121\/","title":{"rendered":"How Africa Became A Key Link For Mexican Cartels In Fentanyl Production"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Africa Became A Key Link For Mexican Cartels In Fentanyl Production<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Darren Taylor via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

The Mexican organized crime group accused of fueling the United States\u2019 fentanyl crisis is now making the deadly drug in Africa<\/strong>, according to local and international law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Sinaloa cartel has chosen South Africa as a major operational base,<\/strong> they said, largely because of its strong trade links to China, which produces the chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, there isn\u2019t a big market for fentanyl in Africa, so much of this drug that\u2019s being made in underground labs on the continent is being smuggled into the United States, the biggest fentanyl market in the world,<\/strong>\u201d said Lt. Gen. Godfrey Lebeya, chief of The Hawks, South Africa\u2019s top police investigative unit.<\/p>\n

Drug overdoses have killed an estimated 400,000 Americans since 2021, with the majority linked to fentanyl, according to statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

In its legal prescription form, fentanyl is a highly effective painkiller.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Criminals, however, copy its chemical makeup in labs and illegally sell it as a powder, dropped onto blotter paper, put in eyedroppers and nasal sprays, or made into pills that look like legitimate prescription opioids, according to a report by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.<\/p>\n

A few milligrams of fentanyl can kill, as it is 50 times stronger<\/a> than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.<\/p>\n

Lebeya told The Epoch Times that South African \u201cdrug traffickers and gangs linked to the Sinaloa cartel\u201d are testing local narcotics markets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFentanyl has definitely entered our trafficking conveyor belts,<\/strong>\u201d he said. \u201cWe know that because we\u2019re arresting suspects who are in possession of it and they tell us, \u2018We want to see if South Africans get a taste for fentanyl.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very concerning because we\u2019ve seen the scale of America\u2019s crisis and we don\u2019t want our country to go the same way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut we must be realistic and admit that it\u2019s possible that we end up with a tragedy of our own because fentanyl is much cheaper than the other drugs circulating in South Africa, like cocaine and heroin, and the Mexicans who are driving fentanyl use in America are now on our soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, The Hawks raided what they later described as a \u201cdrugs superlab\u201d in South Africa\u2019s northern Limpopo province, seizing large quantities of methamphetamine, a small quantity of fentanyl, and about 500 pounds of chemicals used to manufacture both drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Faces of Fentanyl\u201d wall displays photos of Americans who died from a fentanyl overdose, at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Va., on July 13, 2022. Agnes Bun\/AFP via Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

South African farmer Roelof Botha, 57, and three Mexican citizens\u2014Gonzales Jorge Partida, 51, Gutierrez Lopes, 43, and Ruben Vidal Rodriguez, 44\u2014are awaiting trial for alleged manufacturing, dealing, and possession of illicit drugs, as well as money laundering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still questioning the Mexican guys,\u201d<\/strong> Lebeya said. \u201cThey\u2019re not saying much. But international partners have given us information that these men are working for the Sinaloa cartel<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lufuno Sadiki, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Cape Town, told The Epoch Times that it\u2019s \u201ceasy for Mexicans to blend in with locals\u201d because they look very similar to mixed-race South Africans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears as if the Mexicans, mostly from the Sinaloa cartel, are linking up with the local gangs and showing them the ropes, so to speak, [with regard to] fentanyl,\u201d <\/strong>she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn exchange, the South Africans introduce the cartel guys to trusted contacts in the criminal underground and to corrupt officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organized crime groups are attracted to South Africa for several reasons, according to Professor Anthony Minnaar, a security risk management expert at the University of Limpopo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the continent\u2019s wealthiest economy with a banking system that\u2019s linked internationally but is flawed,\u201d he told The Epoch Times. \u201cThe country has well-established drug markets of its own and a plethora of drug-trafficking gangs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa also offers regular flight connections to Central and South America, with its ports visited daily by vessels registered in Mexico.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThen it has high volume trade traffic from China, and criminals are hiding chemicals used to make crystal meth and fentanyl in containers coming from China.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa also has a high level of official corruption.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Francois Steyn, head of the Department of Criminology at the University of the Free State, told The Epoch Times that the Sinaloa cartel had \u201cprobably been in South Africa for longer than we think,\u201d maybe for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re picking up evidence of this only now because our systems have improved over the past five years or so and so has our cooperation with American law enforcement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A Sinaloa state police officer helps dismantle one of three clandestine laboratories that produce illicit synthetic drugs, mainly methamphetamine, in El Dorado, Mexico, on June 4, 2019. Rashide Frias\/AFP via Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In September 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Louisville, Kentucky, intercepted<\/a> a package sent from South Africa containing enough cocaine and fentanyl to kill 220,000 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fentanyl must have been made in South Africa or somewhere else in Africa,\u201d Steyn said. \u201cIf that wasn\u2019t the case, it\u2019s still clear that South Africa is being used as a conduit to get fentanyl and other narcotics into the American market and other markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2024, police found crystal meth and fentanyl worth 37 million rands (about $1.98 million) hidden in ornaments in a cargo shed at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The shipment was headed to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really sad to know that our territory is being used to play a role in America\u2019s fentanyl pandemic,\u201d Lebeya said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019d like Americans to know we are cooperating with the relevant agencies in the United States and doing our best [to prevent fentanyl manufacturing and distribution].\u201d<\/p>\n

An indictment in a U.S.\u00a0court case<\/a> relating to fentanyl production described it as the \u201csingle deadliest drug threat\u201d ever encountered in the country.<\/p>\n

Read the rest here…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 01\/01\/2025 – 08:10<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/how-africa-became-key-link-mexican-cartels-fentanyl-production<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Africa Became A Key Link For Mexican Cartels In Fentanyl Production Authored by Darren Taylor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Mexican organized…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1511122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1511121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1511122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}