On that Friday, August 17, 2018, security units in the air and on the ground had flanked the town of Alcoyonqui, nested into the surrounding mountains less than an hour east of the bustling state capital, Culiacán.
In total, authorities seized at least 50 tonnes of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals used to produce the synthetic drug.
The seizure was another sign of the spectacular rise of illegal synthetic drugs, in particular the stimulant methamphetamine and the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Until the early 2000s, most of the methamphetamine consumed in the United States was produced in domestic laboratories, either tucked away in quiet suburbs outside of major cities or in rural communities.
lawmakers passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act which, among other things, sought to limit access to over-the-counter cold medicines that contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, key precursor ingredients for methamphetamine production.
The Mexico-produced methamphetamine was both higher in purity and lower in price, and when the new controls on precursors began, the Mexican groups simply shifted gears, moving to more accessible and harder to control precursors.
Now, Mexican organized crime groups are the “primary producers and suppliers of low cost, high purity methamphetamine” sent to U.S.
As production ramped up, public health officials in Mexico started to notice the emerging threat methamphetamine posed amid a rise in addiction around 2009 or 2010.
What’s more, the CIJ report found that through the first half of 2020, a growing number of people in their care — more than ever before — reported using methamphetamine at least once in their life.
“We need to look at methamphetamine as the current substance that’s creating the most problems for people who use drugs in Mexico.
Combined with its easy accessibility and the fact that it can be produced in any climate, it comes as little surprise that methamphetamine has spread across the country as crime groups have boosted production to keep up with U.S.
The drug is also increasingly being marketed – often unbeknownst to users – as counterfeit Adderall pills in places like New England.
Given the rise of the market in the United States, securing safe transport of the high-quality product across the U.S.-Mexico border has become even more important, evidenced in the battles between drug trafficking groups and corrupt security officials operating along these routes.
That said, rates of violence are not tied solely to the drug trade.
This low bar of entry allows smaller startup groups to carve out a place for their own operations, taking advantage of a massive market with rising demand and prices.
As things stand now, the lucrative trade shows no signs of slowing, and use of the drug in Mexico is likely to continue.
With use growing, the array of players is widening.
This is the third and final part of a series in which InSight Crime has explored changing drug consumption patterns in the region and its impact on criminal dynamics.