VIENNA, Austria – December 2021: In October 2021, a clandestine synthetic drug laboratory was dismantled in Mexico, where 118 kg of paste containing fentanyl was seized. Mexican authorities estimated that up to a million fentanyl tablets could potentially be produced from 1 kg of this paste[1] The involvement of the Mexican cartels in the illicit manufacture of fentanyl and the production of fentanyl-laced tablets destined for the US market[2] may have led to an expansion of fentanyl trafficking to the north. According to US authorities, in 2021 alone, more than 9.5 million falsified opioid prescription pills containing fentanyl or methamphetamine have been seized so far. Since 2019, pills containing fentanyl increased by over 430 per cent. Therefore, the US DEA issued a public safety alert in September 2021 on the increased availability and lethality of falsified opioid pills available on the US market.[3] Fentanyl is one of the major contributing drugs to the current opioid crisis in the United States, that resulted in a significant increase of overdose deaths.[4]


Source: UNODC.

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[1]Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional Mexico, Ejército Mexicano, Guardia Nacional y F.G.R. detienen a Armando N (a) El Inge, líder del Cártel del Pacífico en Sinaloa, press release (November 2021).

[2]UNODC, World Drug Report 2021 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.21.XI.8).

[3]United States, United States Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Issues Public Safety Alert on Sharp Increase in Fake Prescription Pills Containing Fentanyl and Meth, alert (September 2021).

[4]Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Understanding the epidemic (March 2021).

For more information, please see:

UNODC, Synthetic Drugs and New Psychoactive Substances in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021 (September 2021).

UNODC, Global Synthetic Drug Assessment – Regional Overview Americas (November 2020).

The activities of the Global SMART Programme in Latin America and the Caribbean are supported by the Government of Canada.