The head of Mexico’s detective service says his country is the ‘champion’ of fentanyl production

The head of Mexico’s detective service acknowledged that the country is “the champion” of fentanyl production, something that appears to run counter to past statements by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

López Obrador has hotly denied in the past that any fentanyl is produced in Mexico, saying Mexican cartels only press it into pills or add finishing touches.

But Felipe de Jesus Gallo, the head of Mexico’s Criminal Investigation Agency, said that since the 1990s “Mexico has been the champion of methamphetamine production, and now fentanyl.” He spoke at a U.S.-Mexico conference on synthetic drugs in Mexico City.

Experts agree that cartels in Mexico use precursor chemicals from China and India to make the synthetic opioid and smuggle it into the United States, where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually.

While fentanyl is not widely abused in Mexico, methamphetamine addiction is commonplace.

Gallo said that Mexican cartels have launched industrial-scale production of meth in many states throughout the country and now export the drug around the world.

“Believe me, methamphetamine production has become industrialized, it’s not just in the mountains anymore,” Gallo said.