Inside the fentanyl cartel: Mexico crime lords feeding US addiction

[Music] this is kuliacan capital of Sinaloa State and stronghold of one of the world's most powerful drug cartels for decades the city has been controlled by the narcos using a combination of wealth and fear and in these streets songs of praise ring out for the drug lords foreign [Music] [Music] murders happen here daily the ultimate penalty for upsetting the cartel but right now its deaths over the Border in America which are getting all the attention for years marijuana heroin and cocaine have all been produced and trafficked through this area there's a heavy military presence but the cartel is thriving thanks to a new product Fentanyl and it's one of the most deadly drugs the world has seen we're driving towards the mountains of Sinaloa this is cartel land is an area controlled by the sons of El Chapo Guzman and after days of talking to a person close to the cartel we've been granted permission to film inside a fentanyl lab the drug that is killing thousands of people in the U.S there are now dozens probably hundreds of fentanyl Labs here in Sinaloa no land is needed to grow ingredients it's entirely synthetic it's so easy and cheap to make it can be cooked almost anywhere we've disguised The Cook's voices at their own request s most of the chemicals are easy to find the rest can be imported from China production is quick if a shipment is seized at the border there is always more on the way I have been to Narco Labs before but I have never seen anything like this huge quantities of pure fentanyl cooked daily it's an opioid like heroin but 50 times strong it can be diluted and made into pills but often it's cut into other drugs to make them stronger that is how most overdoses happen until they were 40 kilos of fentanyl here ready to be sent up north to the US where their value is more than half a million dollars but this amount of fentanyl is enough to kill a whole city key ingredients from China are difficult to import directly into America so Mexican cartels dominate production foreign [Music] [Music] these men have been cooking drugs since they were boys the cartel life is pretty much all they know they have little Sympathy for the northern Neighbors [Music] okay cooking fentanyl is now the most lucrative career for many young sinaloan men they hide their exact formula for me in case I try to steal it is Mexico's president has denied multiple times that fentanyl is producing his country he blames American culture for the crisis individualismo they are more foreign [Music] campaigned on demilitarizing Mexico his slogan was hux not bullets but he has vastly increased the military budget and power more Mexicans have died during his presidency than any others in January just days before a visit from U.S President Joe Biden the military launched a pre-dawn raid in culiacan they were after one of El Chapo's sons of video the cartel fought tooth and nail to stop the arrest these were familiar scenes in 2019 the military tried to arrest a video but were forced to release him after heavy Narco violence this time the military held on to him but culiacan was once again left looking like a Warson foreign who carry out the cartels murders they battled the military to hold on to the leader the government says 10 military and 19 cartel gunmen were killed was much higher foreign [Music] [Music] how they feel about killing people on behalf of the cartel and they told me that they considered themselves soldiers in a war against the Mexican state foreign [Music] drug lords and battles with the authorities foreign [Music] business is fully ingrained here and ultimately the arrest of one high-profile leader does nothing The increased production of a deadly drug like fentanyl has made things more dangerous but while business is good it will not stop [Music]

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 2,452,252

Keywords: channel4news, 4news, mexico, drugs, mexican, mexican drugs, fentanyl, America, killer, addiction

Id: lwbjAKQKmoM

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Tue May 02 2023