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Assignment: Killer drug: The Mexico connection

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Killer drug.  1 – The Mexico connection

16/03/2023 GMT

Killer drug: The Mexico connection

BBC World Service - Assignment, Killer drug: The Mexico connection

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid killing thousands of Americans – it is made in Mexico

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid killing thousands of Americans – it is made in Mexico.

Fentanyl is deadly. Thousands of Americans die every year from a drug overdose – the majority of them after using a synthetic opioid like fentanyl. It was developed as a legal, and effective, pain killer. Now, fuelled by insatiable US demand, it is illicitly produced in makeshift laboratories in Mexico by organised crime groups.   
 
In the first of a two-part series, Assignment travels to the Mexican Pacific port of Manzanillo. This is one of the main entry points for the chemical ingredients required to make fentanyl. It is a town where Mexico’s powerful cartels have fought for control, and where the mayor lives under armed guard after a failed assassination attempt. 
 
Although the primary destination of Mexican-made fentanyl is the US, Mexico too has a rising number of addicts, especially in Tijuana on the Mexico-US border.               
 
Presenter / producer: Linda Pressly
Producer: Tim Mansel
Producer in Mexico: Ulises Escamilla

[Photo: The Navy is in charge of security at Mexico’s seaports in a bid to stop the chemicals used to make fentanyl coming in from Asia. Credit: Tim Mansel]

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