Fentanyl Seized: Mexico vs U.S.

Operations Blue Lotus and Four Horsemen

• Stopped nearly 10,000 pounds of fentanyl 
• 284 arrests during a two-month period earlier this year

DHS Launched Operation Artemis in May 2023 to target and disrupt the fentanyl supply chain and since had 500 seizures

• 12,900 pounds of fentanyl precursor chemicals
• Finished fentanyl, pill presses and molds, and other drug paraphernalia.

Mexico SECURITY SECRETARY Rodríguez: (Via interpreter)  "So we can also come to the deepest causes of economic growth and the trafficking of chemical precursors. Remember that Mexico is not a producer of fentanyl. Mexico is a country of transit. In Mexico, we have not detected fentanyl production laboratories......   I want to insist on this because there’s no lab in Mexico which is legally – we can say that it legally has fentanyl production. We do have companies in other – companies in other countries from which we import fentanyl for medical uses and fentanyl is also imported by criminal groups. So, there’s no contradiction."

U.S. Attorney General Garland: First, we are taking on the dangerous drug trafficking cartels that are responsible for the deaths of both American and Mexican citizens. The fentanyl these cartels are producing and trafficking is the deadliest drug threat the United States has ever faced. ....

US Secretary Blinken: Ninety-five percent of the fentanyl that we’re seizing that’s coming into the United States is coming through legal ports of entry.

Mexico Foreign Secretary Barcena - Consumption of fentanyl in Mexico hasn’t arrived in the proportions it has arrived in the United States. That’s a reality and that’s what the president is saying. ... what he’s also saying is that this is a matter of 

• approaching this issue from a perspective of public health
  • of addictions, to see how we can combat causes
  • of why people are consuming drugs, generally speaking I mean.....

• the navy ministry of Mexico ... has taken control over ports. 
• Because in the past, this was done through other companies, even tertiary process, and a lot of corruption was there.

U.S. & Mexico Executive Staff Present a Joint Press Event

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