MEXICO CITY — More than half a million fentanyl tablets were confiscated by Mexican soldiers during a raid on what the army announced Wednesday was the largest synthetic drug lab ever discovered.
The outdoor laboratory was discovered in Culiacan, the capital of the northern state of Sinaloa, according to the army. Sinaloa is home to the same-named drug cartel.
Tuesday, soldiers raided a lab and discovered approximately 630,000 pills that appeared to contain the synthetic drug fentanyl. In addition, they reported seizing 282 pounds of fentanyl powder and around 220 pounds of suspected methamphetamines.
“This is the highest-capacity lab for producing synthetic drugs in the history of this administration,” the army stated in a statement.
Chinese precursor chemicals are delivered to Mexican drug gangs, where they are subsequently processed into counterfeit Xanax, Percocet, and Oxycodone pills. People frequently take the pills without realizing they contain fentanyl, resulting in potentially fatal overdoses.
The arrest occurred on the same day as the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the 70,000 annual fentanyl overdoses in the United States.
The committee chair, New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez, urged Mexico to do more.
This entails urging Mexico to do more to prevent criminal organizations from producing and trafficking fentanyl, despite the fact that a politicized judiciary and instances of collusion between Mexican security personnel and drug cartels would make this impossible.
»Mexico announces the greatest synthetic drug laboratory bust to date«