Mexico asks China for help to tackle fentanyl smuggling

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday that he had sent a letter to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to ask for help to bring fentanyl trafficking under control.

Lopez Obrador read out his letter in which he countered US claims that Mexico is not doing enough to prevent the transporting of the drug into the United States, which is suffering a surge in overdose deaths.

"We come to you, President Xi Jinping, not to ask for your support in the face of these rude threats, but to request that for humanitarian reasons, you help us control shipments of fentanyl that can be sent from China to our country," the Mexican president wrote in his letter.

Threats from Washington

Washington says that the ingredients for making fentanyl are chiefly supplied from Asia, but Lopez Obrador has rejected the claim that the drug is being produced in Mexico.

"It is assumed that the fentanyl is coming from Asia. What must be made clear is that we don't produce fentanyl," Lopez Obrador said. "It's a primary resource that is produced in Asia, and it's also important to clarify this: who is producing it?"

The president's letter comes after some US Republican lawmakers have brought up the idea of deploying military force in Mexico to tackle the problem and take on Mexican drug cartels.

The letter is also a response to US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who said that Mexico was doing nothing to clamp down on the trade of fentanyl.

Hundred thousand annual deaths

Lopez Obrador asked Xi for information on "who is importing this substance, in what quantity, in which shipments, when are they leaving Chinese ports, which ports do they arrive at in Mexico and what specific type of substance is it."

The letter is part of an attempt to demonstrate to the US that it is making efforts to tackle the problem. "There is no other country in the world that is doing as much against the trafficking of fentanyl to the United States as Mexico is," Lopez Obrador said.

He also pointed out that last year Mexico seized 7 tons of fentanyl and destroyed 1,383 secret labs.

More than 107,000 people died from fentanyl consumption in the US in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Mexican president also explained that one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fentanyl produces 1 million doses and has a value of $400,000 (€365,000).

ab/dj (EFE, Reuters)