Fentanyl production increases in Mexico

Felipe de Jesús Gallo, former director of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency in Mexico, said fentanyl production in Mexico had increased significantly, with drug cartels moving towards this synthetic drug for its high profits and low production costs;
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected this claim, stating that any fentanyl is produced in Mexico.
More than 70,000 overdose deaths per year have been attributed to the use of this drug.
The production of fentanyl in Mexico has been a growing problem in recent years. Initially, fentanyl was produced in clandestine laboratories in China and then smuggled into the United States. However, due to tighter restrictions in China, production has moved to other countries, including Mexico. Here, drug cartels have exploited their existing infrastructure to produce and distribute fentanyl, as it is cheaper to manufacture than other drugs such as heroin. This has contributed to the proliferation of the opioid crisis in the US and other parts of the world.