Mexico: Manzanillo, a breakwater on the Pacific Ocean against drug trafficking

A window on Asia, the port of Manzanillo on the Pacific coast in western Mexico is on the front lines in the fight against the import-export of drugs including the latest, fentanyl, a source of tension between the United States and China.

Methamphetamines, cocaine, marijuana: “very significant quantities” of “illegal substances” have been seized since 2018, says the Mexican Navy, which has been in charge of port surveillance since that date.

Capt. Luis Martinez Cabrera told last Wednesday during an open tour of the press that the seizure of “precursors” (chemical components) of fentanyl, the synthetic drug that has killed thousands of people in the United States, would not begin until 2022.

“Before 2022, they were not regulated. The law on precursors was revised in 2022”, continued the official in charge of the risk analysis.

In May, the Deputy Director of Customs in Manzanillo was assassinated barely 15 days after taking office. Emmanuel Martínez previously worked at the Department of Foreign Trade in Matamoros (northwest) on the United States border, one of Mexico’s most dangerous regions.

He was a victim of government measures to combat the importation of fentanyl precursors, with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador saying: “We are fighting drug trafficking, stopping the introduction of these chemicals, destroying laboratories, doing our job. Many public servants are losing their lives.”

In response to a question, agents of the Secretariat (Ministry) of the Navy (Semar) claim to work alone, without the technical assistance of their American counterparts, to monitor traffic in the Manzanillo port.

– Tequila with methamphetamine –

The United States claims that fentanyl precursors come to Mexico from China before entering their territory.

Anne Milgram, the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), recently said Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels “are working with chemical companies based in the People’s Republic of China to obtain their raw materials.”

A month ago, the US Justice Department announced that it had charged Chinese companies for the first time with bringing these components into the United States. China banned fentanyl exports to the United States in 2019.

Nearly 110,000 overdose deaths are expected in the United States in 2022, according to official figures, “two-thirds” of which are caused by synthetic opioids, a record.

Whether importing or exporting, the imagination of smugglers is limitless. The Mexican Navy claims that this year a shipment of over 8,000 liters of tequila was detected in bottles containing methamphetamine: “the substance containing methamphetamine was diluted in the tequila”.

Overall in 2021 the Navy claims to have seized “42 tons” of chemical precursors to methamphetamine, according to Capt. Martinez Cabrera.

Since taking control of the port in 2018, the Navy claims to have “cracked the molecular structure” of fentanyl and methamphetamine precursors before they leave the port. “In this way, we guarantee that they can no longer be used to manufacture synthetic drugs”.

Cocaine mixed with “organic fertilizer” was recently seized, the Captain added, citing other examples of the cleverness of smugglers.

“In 2021, we also seized 1,712 kg of marijuana shipped to Chile. The marijuana came from Guadalajara”, added the captain. The ganja was kept hidden in four containers laden with bricks.

A total of 3.5 million containers pass through Manzanillo every year, which is “the main trading port with Asia and Latin America”.

According to Captain Martínez Cabrera, “We cannot observe them all. We prioritize according to the level of risk.”