Washington DC.- The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) urged the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday to increase anti-narcotics cooperation, including sharing information on seizures, allowing joint operations against clandestine laboratories, and increasing extraditions. .
Accusing them of manufacturing most of the global supply of fentanyl, DEA director Anne Milgram said Wednesday that the Mexican government needs to take more action to combat the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).
“We believe that Mexico needs to do more to stop the damage that we are witnessing,” Milgram said.
“What we are seeing is that these two cartels in Mexico, the one in Sinaloa and the one in Jalisco, are dominating and controlling the entire global fentanyl supply chain, and they are operating throughout Mexico.”
Citing the anti-narcotics fight of the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto between 2012 and 2015, which led to the dismantling of the Los Zetas Cartel, as an example, Milgram cited specific actions where the US anti-drug agency would like to see more commitment from López Obrador.
“The first is the exchange of information. We are not receiving information on fentanyl seizures. We are not receiving information on seizures or chemical precursors and this type of information, as you say, is vital for both countries, both for Mexico and for US,” Milgram said.
“Secondly, we are very concerned about the clandestine laboratories in Mexico and we have offered, continue to offer and stand ready to work together with the Mexican authorities to jointly dismantle and take down these clandestine laboratories throughout the country.”
The official pointed out that one of the things they are looking for Mexico to do is arrest and extradite more people to the US.
“Last year, Mexico extradited 24 drug-related defendants to the US, but there are 232 drug-related defendants awaiting extradition,” the official said.
According to the US government, more than 106,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, most of them caused by synthetic opioids, mainly illegal fentanyl from Mexico and manufactured with precursor chemicals from China.
